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PRESENTED TO THE 



By 



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Theos Kai Themis. 
TRINITY COLLEGE, N. C. 




Class 
Book 



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■ • 



THE 



CAUSES, EVILS, AND CURES, 

OF 

HEART AND CHURCH 

DIVISIONS, 

EXTRACTED FROM THE WORKS OF BURROUGHS 
AND BAXTER. 'Kj ( I 

BY FRANCIS ASBURY, 

ONE OF THE BISHOPS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
Seek peace andpz/r^ue it. — Psalm xxxir. 14. 



N*ro-iKork: 



PUBLISHED BY LANE & SCOTT, 

200 Mulberry-street. 
JOSEPH LONGKING, PRINTER 

1849. 



3 3 pS 



In Exchange 
Duke University 
MA V 1934 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



N*9 

CO 

$■% — 

~Oim Discipline recommends (Part i, ch. iv, 
§ 16) "a serious perusal of the ' Causes, Evils, 
and Cures of Heart and Church Divisions.'" 
The work has long been out of print, so that the 
recommendation could not be complied with. 
A new edition is now furnished at a low price, 
with a view to its general circulation. Recent 
events have tended, perhaps, to weaken the 
spirit of union among us — it may be well for us 
to scrutinize our hearts and lives more closely. 
" If we are united, what can stand before us ? 
If we divide, we shall destroy ourselves, the 
work of God, and the souls of our people." 

J. M'CXINTOCK. 
January 1, 1849. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Address to the Church, by Bishop Asbury. ix 

PART L 

THE CAUSES OF DIVISIONS. 

I. DISTEMPERS THAT DIVIDE. 

1. Pride 7 

2. Self-love 14 

3. Envy 21 

4. Passion 25 

5. Rigidness 29 

6. Rashness 31 

7. Wilfulness 33 

8. Inconstancy . 35 

9. Jealousy 37 

10. Contention 38 

II. PRACTICES THAT DIVIDE. 

1. Whispering 39 

2. Needless disputes 40 

3. Meddling 47 

4. Slander 48 

5. Respect of persons 52 

6. Partial disagreements 54 

7. Using the wicked against the good 56 

8. Revenge 57 



VI CONTENTS. 

PART II. 

THE EVILS OF DIVISIONS. 

I. THE GOOD THEY HINDER. 

Page 

1. They hinder quiet and comfort of spirit 58 

2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 
7. 



freedom of spirit 61 

sweetness of communion 61 

time 63 

prayers 64 

use of our gifts 65 

our graces. 67 

II. THE SIN THEY CAUSE. 



1. They violate the law of love 72 

2. They are against the prayer of Christ 73 

3. They dishonour Christ 74 

4. They grieve the Spirit of God. . . — 77 

5. They offend our brethren. . 78 

6. They stir up corruption 80 

7. They harden in sin 82 

8. They keep others from God's ways 83 

PART III. 

THE CURES OP DIVISIONS. 

I. JOINING PRINCIPLES. 

1. Peace and love will reconcile differences 92 

2. Strife will not gain what love can 93 

3. Better to do good than receive it 95 

4. Other men's good is ours a,s well as theirs... — 96 






CONTENTS. Vll 

Page 

5. Our good is more in the public than ourselves.. 98 

6. The golden rule 98 

7. To yield is more honourable than to overcome- 100 

II. CONSIDERATIONS. 

1. Consider the love of God 103 

2. Consider the fellowship of men 105 

3. Consider the differences of men 112 

4. Consider the will of God — peace 116 

5. Consider the presence of God and Christ 118 

6. Consider your own weakness and mortality 119 

7. Consider the final account 120 

III. DIRECTIONS. 

1. General 121 

2. Observe the workings of spiritual pride 127 

3. Do not overvalue gifts or professions 137 

4. Do not affect eminence of holiness 140 

5. Search the Scriptures as to terms of union and 

communion 141 

6. Beware of being governed by your passions 167 

Directions to Pastors both to prevent 
and heal divisions 202 



TO 



THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS 

OF THE 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Dear Brethren, — In the course of my read- 
ing, some years ago, I met with an old book, 
written by a worthy pastor in the church, Mr. 
Jeremiah Burroughs, on Heart Divisions, the 
Evil of our Times. Feeling at that time the 
pain of a partial separation in spirit and prac- 
tice from some who were as my brethren and 
sons in the gospel, that book proved as a balm 
and a blessing to my soul. I saw so clearly the 
evil consequences of a division, and how good 
and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell 
together in unity, that I began to abridge my ob- 
solete, but valuable book, and earnestly wished, 
prayed, and strove, for unanimity. 

Soon after, I met with another old book, en- 
titled The Cure of Church Divisions; written 
by that venerable servant of God, the John 



X ADDRESS. 

Wesley of his day, in wisdom, affection, zeal, 
and a pacific spirit ; I mean Mr. Richard Bax- 
ter, of precious memory. Being highly pleased 
with his evangelical sentiments, I concluded to 
make an extract from both, not doubting but it 
might be of great service to the church of Christ. 

And now I recommend it to all ministers of 
the gospel, and professing Christians of every 
denomination, into whose hands it may come, 
beseeching them to read it carefully, and with 
much prayer, that they may cultivate a spirit 
of unity and brotherly love. 

I remain, dear brethren, your servant for 

Christ's sake, 

Francis Asbury. 



CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, 



OP 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 



THE CAUSES OF DIVISIONS. 
1.— SDistentpers tljat totuite. 

PRIDE THE CHIEF DIVIDING DISTEMPER. 

Pride is the greatest master of misrule in the 
world ; it is the great incendiary in the soul of 
man, in families, in towns, in cities, in all socie- 
ties, in church and state : this wind causeth tem- 
pests to arise. Prov. xiii, 10: "Only by pride 
cometh contention." The Holy Ghost singles 
out pride, as the only cause of all contentions, 
because it is the chief; though there be many in 
a riot, the whole is usually laid upon the ring- 
leaders. Pride is the ringleader to all riots, 
divisions, disturbances among us. Prov. xxi, 24 : 
a Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who 
dealeth in proud wrath." Pride may be well 
indicated for the great common barrator, or 



8 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

wrangler, in all our towns and cities ; it makes 
woful troubles wherever it comes. 

We read in Scripture of the manna that God 
gave his people ; such was the nature of it, that 
the heat of the sun melted it. You will say, 
" How would it then endure the heat of the oven ? 
for they baked it in the oven." Yet, so it was 
of a strange kind of nature, that it could bear the 
heat of the oven, and not the heat of the sun. 
Even of such a temper are our hearts; the 
heat of the sun of prosperity dissolves us, causes 
us to run one from another : but the heat of the 
fire of affliction bakes us, brings us and settles 
us together ; it makes us to be one, it takes away 
our rawness, it consumes many of our ill hu- 
mours, and so composes our spirits into one. 
The stupidness of our hearts is such, that we do 
not make our brethren's case our own ; but we 
for the present having some more liberty than 
formerly, are lifted up, and in the pride of our 
hearts push at our brethren, and smite our fel- 
low servants : if the troubles be at a little dis- 
tance from us, though we even hear the cries of 
our brethren who are in the midst of them, yet 
we foolishly bless ourselves in our present ease, 
enjoyments, and hopes, as if our flesh must be 
spared, our estates and enjoyments continued, 
yea, raised, whatever becomes of others. O 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 9 

sinful vain spirits, befooled and hardened by 
their pride ! 

But what are the several workings of pride 
that make such a stir in the world ? 

Answ. A proud man thinks himself too great 
to be crossed. Shall I bear this ? I will make 
you know what it is to do such things against 
me ! He thinks it a great dishonour to himself to 
bear anything ; therefore he must needs quar- 
rel and contend, if it is but to show what a man 
of spirit he is, or to show that he is a man of 
such worth, that whatever others bear, it is not 
fit for him to bear it. It is but reason that such 
a man as he should make men, who will presume 
to cross him, to yield to him, to stoop under him. 
Now when one proud man thinks it a dishonour 
to him to put up with wrongs from another, 
who it may be is as proud as himself, and he 
thinks it a dishonour for him to put up with 
wrongs, what peace can there be ? Some wrongs 
must be put up with, but proud men will never 
agree who shall begin. 

Pride makes men swell beyond their bounds : 
the way to keep all things in union is for every 
man to keep within his bounds : the swelling be- 
yond tends to the breaking all in pieces. Hab. 
ii, 5 : " He is a proud man, neither keepeth at 
home, who enlarge th his desire as hell, and can- 



10 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

not be satisfied." If any humour of the body 
goeth beyond its bounds, it brings much trouble 
to it ; the health and peace of the body consist 
in the keeping of every humour within its vessel, 
and due proportion. 

Pride hardens men's hearts. Dan. v, 10 : 
" His mind is hardened in his pride. 5 ' If you 
would have things cleave, you must have them 
soft ; two flints will not join : the Spaniard hath 
a proverb, lime and stone will make a wall ; if 
one be hard, yet if the other be yielding, there 
may be joining, and good may be done, not else. 

Pride causes men to despise the persons, ac- 
tions, and sufferings, of others ; and nothing is 
more insufferable to a man's spirit than to be 
vilified. A proud man despises what others do, 
and others what he does ; every man, next to 
his person, desires the honour of his actions ; if 
these two be contemned, his sufferings will like- 
wise be contemned by the proud : this also goes 
very near to a man ; one man thinks what an- 
other man suffers is nothing, no matter what 
becomes of him ; another thinks his sufferings 
nothing, and no matter what becomes of him. 
O at what a distance now are men's hearts one 
from another ! 

Pride causes every man to desire to be taken 
notice of, to have an eminency in some thing or 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 11 

another ; if he cannot be eminent on one side, 
he will get to the other ; he must be taken notice 
of, one way or other ; when he is in a good and 
peaceable way, God makes some use of him; 
yet because he is not observed and looked upon 
as eminent, he will rather turn to some other 
way, to contend, strive, to oppose, or anything, 
that he may be taken notice of, to be somebody, 
that he may not go out of the world without 
some noise. " What, shall such a man as I, of 
such parts, such approved abilities, so endued by 
God to do some eminent service, be laid aside, 
and nobody regard me ? I must set upon some 
notable work, something that may draw the eye 
of observance upon me !" I have read of a young 
man who set Diana's temple on fire, and being 
asked the reason, he said, " That he might have 
a name, that the people might talk of him." 
Because he could not be famous for doing good, 
he would for doing evil. Proud spirits will ven- 
ture the setting the temple of God, yea, church 
and state, on fire, that they may have a name ; 
whatever they do or suffer to get a name, they 
will rather venture, than die in obscurity ; that 
above all things they cannot bear. 

A proud man makes his will the rule of his 
actions, and would have it be the rule of other 
men's too ; and other men being proud, would 



12 

have their wills the rule of their actions, and of 
his too. Thus the blustering wind of pride in 
men's hearts causes them to jostle one against 
another, and so to split themselves one upon an- 
other ; as where many ships lie together, a vio- 
lent wind breaking their anchor-cables, causes 
them to dash one upon another, and so to make 
shipwreck even in the haven. 

Proud men will venture upon things unseem- 
ly; thinking their esteem and greatness will 
bear them out ; and others who are proud, will 
venture upon the like, upon the same ground, 
for every man is ready to high thoughts of 
himself. Psa. xix, 14 : " Deliver me from pre- 
sumptuous sins," a superbis, so some, ab in- 
solentihiSy so others, from proud, from insolent 
sins. 

If there is anything to be done that is con- 
ceived to be mean and low, a proud man will 
strive to put it upon others, and others who are 
proud, will strive to put it upon him ; and if it 
be a work of credit, then he seeks it to himself, 
and others seek it to themselves, and hence are 
jarrings and divisions. 

One proud man thinks himself the only wor- 
thy man to have his counsel followed, and his 
desires satisfied ; and the other thinks himself 
the man that should have his counsel followed, 



HEART XSD CHURCH DIVISIONS. 13 

and his desires satisfied : and thus men struggle 
and oppose one another. 

Here we see what a make-bate pride is; 
that which Tertullus said to Felix (Acts xxiv, 2) 
is true of humility : " By thee we enjoy great 
quietness ;" but the contrary is as true of pride : 
" By thee are made woful divisions, by thee we 
suffer miserable disturbances." Though there 
be no occasion of quarrel, yet pride will make 
some ; only by pride comes contention, as before. 
Pro v. xiii, 10. 

Now let every man look into his own heart, 
and see what pride hath been, and still is there, 
and be humbled before the Lord for this. All 
you contentious, froward, quarrelsome people, 
you are charged this day from God with being 
men and women of proud spirits, and what evil 
there is^ in our sad divisions, that pride in your 
bosom is a great cause of it. St. Paul " did 
keep under his body, lest after he had preached 
to others, he should become a castaway," or a 
reprobate. Let us all look to it, and especially 
ministers, lest after all our profession and glo- 
rious shows, we at last become reprobates, at 
least such as God may cast out for destruction, 
even in this world, taking no delight in making 
use of; what, in such times as these to have 
hearts swoln and lifted up with" pride? God is 



14 



CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 



now about staying the pride of the earth. How 
unseasonable and dangerous for a mariner to 
have his topsails up, and all spread in a violent 
storm ; it is time then to pull down all, lest he 
sink irrecoverably. The point of a needle will 
let the wind out of a bladder, and shall not the 
swords of God, the swords of war, and plague, 
that have got so deep into our bowels, let out 
the windy pride of our hearts ? " The haughti- 
ness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord 
himself will be exalted." The Lord humbleth 
us, that he may reconcile us, not only to himself, 
but to one another. 



SELF-LOVE IS ANOTHER DIVIDING DISTEMPER. 

Phil, ii, 3 : u Let nothing be done through 
strife." Verse 4 : " Look not every man on his 
own things, but every man also on the things 
of others." This is the cause of strife, because 
men look so much on their own things. Many 
will have no peace, except their own party be 
followed ; Jehu like, " what hast thou to do with 
peace ? follow me." It is not peace, but party, that 
they mind. Maxima pars studiorum est studium 
partium ; that is, the greatest part of their stu- 
dies is to study sides and parties. Luther upon 
Psa. cxxvii hath a notable speech : " I am of 
that opinion/' says he, " that monarchies would 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 15 

continue longer than they do, were it not for 
that same little pronoun (Ego) that same (I) 
myself." Yea, certainly, could this same self 
be laid aside, all governments and societies 
would not only continue longer, but flourish 
better. " Self-love is the cause of our divisions ;" 
where this prevails, men love to take in all to 
themselves. 

Those who are actuated by self-love, have 
no common ends to join them, therefore they 
cannot close ; if they be employed in public 
service, they quickly work to their private ends. 
Thus many at the first : O who but they for 
the public, for the common good ! But there 
being a principle of self within, and some dif- 
ficulty rising, they warped to their own ends, 
and divided from those they were employed 
with. Men's private ends are narrow, they 
cannot drive on them, but they will meet with 
one another, and jostle one another, quarrel, 
contend, and fight for the way, as cartmen do 
when they meet in narrow streets, and boatmen 
in narrow passages. If we had public ends, 
our way would be broad enough, we might go 
on peaceably and comfortably, without prejudice 
against one another. If a man lived alone, 
then he might go on quietly in his own way, 
only God would meet him in it ; but seeing men 



16 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

live in the world among others, they must con- 
sider, that if they will drive on their own de- 
signs, and work their own ends, other men have 
designs and ends to drive on and work as well 
as they: it is therefore impossible but you 
will cross and be crossed ; you will vex and 
fret at others, and others will vex and fret at 
you. 

When anything cloth but smell of self, it 
begins to be loathed ; let a man have never 
such excellent parts, do never such excellent 
things, yet if self appears, the loveliness and 
glory of all is gone ; therefore those men that 
act self, had need be very cunning to keep in 
and hide it ; herein appears what a vile thing 
self is, that though in truth it acts all, and 
receives the incomes of all, yet it dares not ap- 
pear, but lies skulking under all the covers it 
can. How vile is this self for which all must 
be done, which thou makest thy God, yet can- 
not in the least appear, but is odious and 
abominable to every one ! Yea, it is conscious 
to itself that it is so, and therefore dares not 
appear ; yet the acting of it is very mischievous 
to all human societies. 

There is this wickedness in self-love, that 
even those things that men acknowledge to be 
right and good in the general, yet if they shall 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 17 

not particularly suit with, something they would 
have, it will put men upon the opposing ; and 
what peace and union can there be among men, 
if what they will grant, and commend to be 
good, yet when it falls across to them, they will 
oppose, and contend against ? 

Self causes men not to see their own evils, 
or if they do, to indulge themselves in them ; 
but to be quick-sighted and severe in the dis- 
covering and opposing those evils that are in 
others, and this causes many breaches and fall- 
ings oat. We may apply that of the apostle, 
1 Cor. xiii, " Love covereth a multitude of 
faults," to self-love. Selfish men see but little 
evil in themselves — all is ever well with them, 
whatever others do ; and the more they indulge 
themselves, the more severe they are toothers; 
but Christ would have the quite contrary, se- 
verity to ourselves, but indulgence to others ; 
those that are so, are the most peaceable men. 
Matt, xviii, 8 : "If thy hand or foot offend thee, 
pluck them off, and cast them from thee ; or if 
thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it 
from thee." We must deal severely with our- 
selves in those things that are as near and as 
dear to us as our hands and eyes ; but verse 15, 
when Christ gives orders how we are to deal 
with our brethren, he then requires more 



18 



CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 



moderation : " If thy brother offend thee, go 
and tell him his fault between thee and him 
alone ;" if he will not hear thee, then take with 
thee one or two more, and see what thou canst 
do with him in that way ; yea, and after that, 
tell the church ; not presently cut him off, and 
cast him away, as you must do when your hand 
or eye offends you. If men have any indulgence, 
let it be toward their brethren ; if they have 
any severity, let them exercise that toward 
themselves. Pliny says of himself :" " That he 
so passed by other men's offences, as if himself 
were the greatest offender, and he was so severe 
against himself, as if he meant to pardon none." 
If it were so with us, we should live at more 
peace one with another than we do. 

These were wont to be entire friends ; how 
came they to break off? what unkindness hath 
befallen them ? None at all, only that principle 
of self was not so fully fed as it would be ; 
upon that they began to be reserved, and so 
strange, and at last quite fell off from one an- 
other, from former love and friendship, and 
then every little thing caused grudgings between 
them. 

Self sets men's wits on work, in all cunning 
craftiness, to fetch others about to their own ends, 
and this goes as much against a man's spirit as 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. Id 

anything ; when he comes to discern it, no man 
can bear to be circumvented, to be made ser- 
viceable only to another man's ends. The more 
cunning there is in it, the more odious and 
abominable it is to a man's spirit ; when it 
comes once to be discerned, a man cannot bear 
it. Crooked windings are the goings of the 
serpent : but if a man shall not only seek to 
make use of another to serve his own turn by 
him, but after he hath done that, then to cast 
him off to shift for himself ; this is so provoking 
a thing, that it makes breaches irreconcil- 
able. 

When one is for self, in his ways, he makes 
another to be so in his ; as a man, by conversing 
with the fro ward, learns to be fro ward ; so 
many, who have heretofore had plain hearts, 
full of love and sweetness, yet, by being ac- 
quainted much with selfish political men, learn to 
be so too. I see how he looks to himself in every- 
thing, fetches about this way and that way, but 
still it terminates in self at last ; I perceived it 
not at my first acquaintance with him, and then 
my heart was let out to him fully ; but now I 
see every man is for himself, and why should 
not I be so too ? And what then is like to be- 
come of the public ? 

Surely this selfishness is very vile, in the 



20 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

eyes of God. God hath made us members of a 
community; the universe is maintained by union, 
therefore the creatures will venture the destroy- 
ing themselves in going contrary to their natures, 
rather than there should not be union in the 
world ; that which they do in a natural way, we 
should do by the strength of reason, much more 
by grace. 

O foolish heart, that in such a time as this 
art selfish, when the danger is public ! as in a 
storm, when the ship is in danger, if every 
mariner should be busy about his own cabin, 
dressing and painting that, what infinite sottish 
folly were it ? and is it not our case ! It were 
just with God to leave thee to thyself hereafter, 
if thou wilt look so much to thyself now. Ezek. 
xxii, 16 : "And thou shalt take thine inheritance 
in thyself, in the sight of the heathen, and thou 
shalt know that I am the Lord." This is in a 
way of threat, as appears, if you compare it 
with ver. 14, 15. Wo to us if God leaves us to 
ourselves. I have heard of a fool being left in 
a chamber, and the door locked, and all the 
people gone, he cries out of the window, "O 
myself, myself ! O myself !" nothing came from 
him but " O myself." Such fools have we among 
us now ; nothing but self is in their thoughts, 
their hearts, and endeavours. The apostle's 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 21 

Complaint (Phil, ii, 21) may justly be ours: 
"All seek their own, not the things which are 
Jesus Christ's :" their own things ; that is, says 
Chrysostom, their pleasure, and their security, 
their temporal commodities, their profits, and 
their honors : so others : why are not the com- 
forts, the safeties, the honours of the saints, the 
things of Christ? doth not Christ own them? 
are they not under his protection and care ? 

Answ. Yes, and he would own them more, 
if we owned them less ; the more we deny them, 
the more hath he a care of them : we may, by 
our giving them up to the honour of Christ, make 
them to be among the number of his things, 
and then they would be precious indeed ; but 
by desiring them, using them, rejoicing in them, 
in reference to ourselves, Christ accounts them 
not among his things ; things of a higher nature 
are his things ; the glory of his Father, the propa- 
gation of the gospel, the spiritual good of hi3 
people, and the things of eternal life, they are 
his things ; let us make his things ours, and he 
will make our things his. 

ENVY A DIVIDING DISTEMPER. 

Envy is a squint-eyed fool. Job v, 2 : " Envy 
slayeth the silly one." James iii, 14 : " If ye 
have bitter envying and strife in your hearts/ 7 



22 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

Envy is a bitter thing, and causes strife, and 
makes that bitter too: so verse 16: "Where 
envying and strife is." Gal. v, 20 : " Hatred, 
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, 
heresies, envyings." 1 Cor. iii, 3: "There is 
among you envying, strife, and divisions." Envy 
made divisions between angels and men ; it was 
the first sin, not the first-born of the devil, but 
that which turned angels into devils. The first 
heart division among men was between Cain 
and Abel, and what caused it but envy ? who 
can stand before envy? she is subtle, under- 
mining, dares not appear at the first ; but if she 
cannot be satisfied with her underworks, then 
she flings, rends, frets, and fights, uses violence, 
seeks to raise a contrary faction, falls on any- 
thing in the world so mischief may be done, let 
what will become of God's glory, of service to 
the public, of saving souls : rather than that 
esteem, respect, and honour, that otherwise might 
be had, should not be obtained, all must come 
under, all must be serviceable to this base lust : 
rather than the glory of an envious man must 
be eclipsed, God himself and his earth must be 
darkened. O hideous wickedness, and high im- 
pudence against the God of heaven ! Envy 
divides in counsels, in instruments, actions, and 
in all proceedings ; she will make use of good 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 23 

to oppose that which is good ; if she cannot 
raise evil men to oppose good, she will seek to 
get good men to oppose ; she would make God 
contrary to himself, she would strike at God 
with his own sword. Phil, i, 14 : " Some preach 
Christ out of envy." As envy makes use of 
good for evil, so God makes use of this evil for 
good. Many seek to excel in preaching, or 
otherwise, by this means, and says St. Paul : 
"Howsoever I do rejoice, and will rejoice." 
When you see a man seeking to rake and gather 
together all he can of any mistakes, distempers, 
disorders, miscarriages, by hearsays, letters, or 
any way, so that by it he may fill up his dung- 
cart; and for the good, the grace or gifts of 
God in men, those are laid aside, or passed 
slightingly over ; if at all mentioned, it is with 
some dirt mingled ; surely this is an envious 
man, fitted for strife and debate, whom God 
permits to be an affliction to his people in 
raising up a spirit of strife and contention, and 
causing divisions among them ; like the kite, 
who passes over fair meadows and pleasant 
fields, not regarding them, till she meets with 
a carrion, and then falls and fastens ; now she 
is upon her prey where she would be; how 
pleasant is it to some men to hear of, or find 
out, evils in others whom they do not love ? 



24 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

To say no worse, you know it hath been an old 
practice to seek to get anything by reports, or 
any other way that might blast the professors 
of religion ; and how glad were they ! how did it 
please them at the heart, if they could meet 
with anything that might serve their turn ! 

The Holy Ghost says, that envy is rottenness 
to the bones ; this is applied, by a learned man, 
to such as are chief in church and common- 
wealth, who are, as it were, the bones, the 
strength, the support, of the societies where they 
are ; envy, says he, is often found among them, 
and it is rottenness to them. This vile sin has 
caused a rot in many men of eminent abilities 
and places, who might otherwise have done 
much service for God and his people in church 
and state. O it is a mischievous sin ! " Take 
away envy/' says Augustine, " and what you 
have is mine ; take away envy, and what I have 
is yours." We read, Acts xi, of Barnabas, that 
he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost, 
and he was a man of a cleaving disposition, 
of a uniting temper : verse 23, " He exhorteth 
them that with full purpose of heart they 
would cleave unto the Lord. 5 ' This man was 
free from envy : for the text says, " When he 
had seen the grace of God he was glad;" he 
rejoiced in, and blessed God for the grace he 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 25 

saw in his saints. " Do you envy for my sake ?" 
says Moses ; " I would to God all the people 
of the Lord did prophesy." Moses was a fit 
man for public service, who was so void of 
envy ; no men are so fit for public service as 
those who can bless God that he is pleased to 
make use of others as well as them, yea beyond 
themselves. It was a good spirit of that gra- 
cious, holy, old disciple, Mr. Dod, " I would to 
God," said he, " I were the worst minister in 
England ;" not wishing himself worse than he 
was, but all ministers better. 

PASSION IS A DIVIDING DISTEMPER. 

Those men who, upon every trifle, are all on 
fire by their passions, and what in them lies, 
set others on fire, do exceedingly disturb the 
peace of those places where they live, and 
those societies of which they are members : 
their hot passions cause the climate where they 
live to be like the torrid zone, too hot for any 
to live near them. Christ is the Prince of 
peace, and the devil is the prince of division : 
hence that expression of the Holy Ghost, Eph. 
iv, 27 : " Let not the sun go down upon your 
wrath, neither give place to the devil." You 
are loath to give place to your brother; you will 
sav, " What, shall I yield to him ?" you will not 



26 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

yield to him, but you will yield to him that is 
worse, to the devil. So you do when you yield 
to wrath. 

Suppose children or servants were wrangling 
one with another, were not this an argument 
for them to be quiet, Your father is here ? Your 
master is come ? Will not all be hushed pre- 
sently? God is come among us, we may see 
the face of God in what he hath done for us, 
and shall we be quarrelling before his face ? 

We were not without some fears lest God 
should leave us in the work, which some years 
back was begun ; but now God speaks aloud 
to encourage us, he tells us he owns the work. 
Now what doth this require of us ? A little logic 
will draw the consequence. Hath God de- 
clared himself, that he intends to go on in this 
work he hath begun ? then let us all join to- 
gether to further it to the uttermost we can ; 
let us not exasperate the spirits of one another 
in ways of strife and opposition, but let every 
one set his hand and heart to this work, that he 
may be able to say, O Lord God, thou that 
knowest the secrets of all hearts, knowest that 
upon this great mercy of thine, my heart was 
so moved that whatever I could possibly see to 
be thy will, for the furtherance of this great 
work, as far as I was able, I did set myself to 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 27 

do it, and am resolved to spend my strength 
and life in it. If every one did thus, O what 
glory might God have from this mercy of his ! 

When the Lord comes to us with mercies, he 
expects we should rejoice in them, and sing 
praise ; but how can we sing without harmony ? 
Prayer requires an agreement. Matt, xviii, 18 : 
" If two of you shall agree on earth touching any- 
thing they shall ask, it shall be done for them." 
Surely praise requires agreement much more. 
Psalms out of tune are harsh to the ear ; dis- 
agreement of heart is much more so to the Spirit 
of God. 

Surely when God hath done so much for us, 
it must be acknowledged to be our duty to study 
what sacrifice would be best pleasing to him: 
some sacrifice we must offer. If there be any 
more acceptable to him than other, surely he 
deserves it. If a friend had done some real 
kindness for you, you would be glad to know 
what might be most grateful to him, wherein 
you might testify your thankfulness. Is this in 
your hearts ? Do you now say, " O that we did 
but know the thing that would be most pleasing 
to God ; what sacrifice would be the sweetest in 
his nostrils ! The Lord knows we would offer 
it freely, whatever it be." I will tell you : 
u That we would lay aside our divisions, our 



28 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

frowardness ; that we would abandon all conten- 
tion and strife ; that we would put on bowels of 
mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meek- 
ness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, 
forgiving one another, if any have a quarrel 
against any, even as Christ forgave you, even 
so do ye." Col. iii, 12. " A meek and quiet spirit 
is, in the sight of God, of great price." 1 Pet. 
iii, 4. "The sacrifice of God," that which is 
instead of all sacrifices, " is a broken spirit." 
Our hearts have been broken one from another, 
in our unhappy divisions ; O that they could 
break one toward another, in love and tender- 
ness ! Here would be a sacrifice more esteemed 
of God, than thousands of rams, and ten thou- 
sand rivers of oil : " Loving mercy, and walking 
humbly," is preferred before such sacrifices. 
Micah vi, 8. 

God shows that he can own us, notwithstand- 
ing all our infirmities ; why should not we own 
our brethren, notwithstanding their infirmities ? 
Why should our divisions cause us to cast off one 
another, seeing our divisions have not provoked 
God to cast us off? We had need to take heed 
of breaches, lest God should be provoked to 
change his administrations toward us. 

All those who are of gracious and peaceable 
spirits, should consider this, and go to all they 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 29 

know to have been at a distance one from an- 
other, with whom they have hope to do good, 
and seek to mollify their spirits, — to know what 
it is they have one against another ; what pre- 
judices, what hard thoughts, have been enter- 
tained by them, and strive by all means to 
remove them ; that so, we, loving and delighting 
in one another, the Lord may love us, and 
delight in us, and show mercy unto us yet more 
and more. 

RIGIDNESS A DIVIDING DISTEMPER. 

Rigid, harsh, sour, crabbed, rough-hewn spirits, 
are unfit for union ; there is no sweetness, no 
amiableness, no pleasingness in them : they 
please themselves in a rigid austereness, but are 
pleasing to none else : in their ways, they will 
abate nothing of their own, nor yield anything 
to others. This is against the rule of the apostle : 
" We must not please ourselves, but let every 
one please his neighbour, for his good to edifica- 
tion ; and this according to the example of Christ, 
who pleased not himself." This is the duty, not 
of weak men only, who had need please others, 
because they have need of them, but those that 
are strong ought not to please themselves, but 
seek to please others. Men who are of austere 
spirits, affecting gravity which turns to a dull, 

3 



30 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

sullen sternness, think it to be the commendation 
of the strength of their spirits, that they can 
carry themselves as they do toward others, seek- 
ing altogether content to themselves, without 
any yieldableness to others; "no, that is but 
lightness, and weakness in men ; they are of a 
more staid, strong temper, than to do so." These 
men by their wisdom do very much sin against 
the wisdom of the Holy Ghost in the Scripture ; 
yea, and against the example of Jesus Christ, 
who in his whole course manifested tenderness, 
gentleness, affableness, amiableness toward weak 
ones, who were infinitely beneath him : and here 
is set forth to us one who pleased not himself, 
and so was far from this rigid, harsh temper: 
those swords are not of the best-tempered metal 
which will not bend, but stand stiff; but such as 
yield and bend with the most ease, and stand 
straight again: neither are those dispositions 
best, which are the stiffest ; but such as are 
most flexible, and yet stand straight too. This 
harsh and rigid spirit makes men's gifts and 
graces to be very unuseful. When Plato saw 
Xenocrates of an austere, rigid temper, he advis- 
ed him to sacrifice to the graces, that he might 
have more mildness, fearing that otherwise his 
parts and learning would be unprofitable. The 
Jews observe upon Exod. xxv, 3, That no iron 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 31 

was in the stuff of the tabernacle ; rigid iron 
spirits are very unfit for church work. Levit. 
xvii, 7 : " They shall no more sacrifice to devils." 
The word translated devils, signifies rough ones ; 
devils had their names from thence ; this is the 
name of a satyr, Isa. xxxiv, 14, the rough one. 
The spirit of God is a dove-like, sweet spirit ; 
but the spirit of the devil is a rough, harsh 
spirit, the spirit of a satyr. Pro v. xi, 17 : " He 
that is cruel troubleth his own flesh." That 
word here translated cruel, the Septuagint else- 
where translates by a word that signifies rigid, 
stiff. Men of such tempers are very trouble- 
some to themselves, to their families, to all with 
whom they converse. If a smith would join 
two pieces of iron, he must first beat them 
smooth : if the joiner would join two pieces of 
wood, he must plain them. Except our spirits 
be beaten smooth, or plained, they are unfit for 
joining. 

RASHNESS A DIVIDING DISTEMPER. 

Acts xix, 36 : "Ye ought to be quiet, and do 
nothing rashly." Doing things rashly is op- 
posed to quietness. 

Rashness makes men engage themselves 
suddenly in business before they have examined 
it well. This causes much trouble, for if a man 



32 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

be engaged, he lies under a temptation to go on 
in it; as 2 Chron. xxv, 9, when the man of 
God came to Amaziah, to take him off from 
a business he was engaged in ; " O but, says he, 
what shall I do for the hundred talents I have 
given out already?" Thus many answer to 
the truth of God, that would take them off from 
what they have engaged in, " But what shall I 
do for my credit that lies engaged ?" 

Rashness causes men suddenly to provoke 
others; whereas, did they consider what ill 
consequences might come of it, they would 
forbear. Rash men quickly take hold of the 
sword of justice to hack and hew : they think 
that what they do is according to reason ; but they 
do not wisely weigh things in the balance of 
justice. Remember, justice hath a balance, as 
well as a sword. Pro v. xxix, 11: "A fool 
uttereth all his mind." The Septuagint has it, 
" utters all his anger." Rash fools, by uttering 
all their anger, suddenly cause great stir and 
trouble wherever they go. The Hebrew word 
that signifies a fool, and that which signifies 
suddenly, rashly, is from the same root. 

When peace sometimes is even concluded, 
and there is great joy, in hopes of a comfortable 
agreement, rashness will suddenly break it, 
without any due consideration. 






HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 83 

that that promise, Isa. lii, 4, were fulfilled 
among us : " The heart of the rash shall under- 
stand knowledge." Rash men presently think 
they understand all that can be known in such 
a business, and thence presume to make sudden 
determinations : but as over-hearty digestion 
causes wind, and brings much trouble to the 
body ; so do over-hasty resolutions to men's 
spirits and societies. 

WILFULNESS A DIVIDING DISTEMPER. 

I think I may say, in most men, will is the 
axle-tree, lusts and passions are the wheels, 
whereupon almost all their actions are carried : 
where there is much will, though the thing be 
little about which men contend, yet the opposi- 
tion may be great ; as a little stone, thrown with 
a strong arm, may make deep impression. It 
is a dangerous thing to have men's wills engaged 
in matters of difference : it is easier to deal with 
twenty men's reasons, than with one man's will : 
a man of a wilful stout spirit, stands as a stake 
in the midst of a stream, lets all pass by him, 
but he stands where he was : what hope can 
there be of union, where there will be no yield- 
ing ? One man's will raises another's ; set will 
to will, they may dash one against another, 
but are not like to close, to get into one another. 






34 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

A wilful man thinks it beneath a wise man to 
alter his way; yea, it may be he thinks it a 
dishonour to the truth, that both he, his profes- 
sion, and the honour of God, shall suffer by it. 
When a stubborn self-willedness is taken for a 
right constancy and settledness, it is very strong 
in men: but let us take heed of this, it is no 
matter though we go back from our former as- 
sertions, so long as we go forward to the truth. 
Luther was called an apostate ; " I am so," says 
he ; " but it is from error to truth." Many times 
stoutness of spirit comes from weakness, rather 
than strength : there is not always the greatest 
strength of judgment where there is the greatest 
strength of will. As a man's judgment that is 
without prejudice is very strong, so a man's pre- 
judice that is without judgment is as strong. 
The dullest horses are not always the most easily 
reined. " I know, and am persuaded," says the 
apostle. Rom. xiv, 14. Many men are per- 
suaded before they know ; those who are per- 
suaded before they know, will not be persuaded 
to know. Men's wills will not suffer their 
understandings to consider: if they do con- 
sider, they will not suffer them to be con- 
vinced: if they be convinced, they will not 
suffer them to acknowledge that they are 
convinced. 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 35 



UNCONSTANCY A DIVIDING DISTEMPER. 

Unconstaricy is evil, and a cause of division. 
Stoutness is evil, and a cause of division. A man 
must not be one thing one day, and another an- 
other day ; not like a weather-cock, carried up 
and down with every wind : neither must he be 
wilful and stout ; not like a rusty lock that will 
not be stirred by any key. 1st. True constancy 
and settledness of spirit are got by much 
prayer and humiliation before the Lord. " Es- 
tablish me, Lord, with thy free spirit ; unite my 
heart to fear thy name" — after thy heart-break- 
ings and meltings, and heart-cryings and pour- 
ings forth, u Lord, show me what thy will is in 
this thing ; keep me from miscarrying ; let me 
not settle upon any error instead of the truth ; but 
what is thy truth, fasten my soul in it ; that what- 
ever temptations come, I may never be taken 
off from it" Tell God in prayer what the thing 
is, and what hath persuaded thy heart to embrace 
it ; open thy heart fully to God in all thy aims ; 
and if by this means the heart be fixed, now it 
is delivered from fickleness, and not fallen into 
stoutness. 

2ndly. Where true constancy is attained, 
by the Spirit of God, and not by the stoutness of 
thine own, there is exercise of much grace, and 



86 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES OF 

growing up in grace, as faith, humility, love, 
meekness, patience, &c. 2 Peter iii, 17, 18: 
" Take heed ye fall not from your steadfastness ; 
but grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Hearts stout 
and wilful are dry and sapless. If the more a 
man hath to do with God, the more settled he 
is in his way ; and when he hath the most full 
converse and sweetness of communion with God, 
he is then the most fully settled, satisfied, es- 
tablished in such a truth, which he conceived to 
be of God — he is safe. Many men are very 
stiff, and wilfully immoveable. When they have 
to deal with men they seem then to be the most 
confident men in the world ; but God knows, and 
their conscience knows, when they solemnly set 
themselves in the presence of God, and have 
the most real sight of God, and have to deal 
most immediately with him, then they have mis- 
giving thoughts; they have fears that things 
may not prove so sure, as they bore others in 
hand they apprehended them to be : but if God's 
presence, and thy dealings with him, confirm 
thee in this, thy conscience may give thee an 
assurance, that as thou art not fickle and waver- 
ing, so not stout and wilful. 

3dly. When there is a proportion in men's 
constancy : if a man be resolute and constant in 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 37 

one thing, but very fickle and easy turned aside 
in others, there is cause to suspect his constan- 
cy is rather from stiffness than from grace ; for 
grace works proportionably through the whole 
soul, and in the whole course of a man's life. 

4thly. If the more real the presence of death 
and judgment appear to a man, the more settled 
he is in that way ; this likewise may be a good 
evidence to him, that his settledness in such a 
way is right. 

A SPIRIT OF JEALOUSY A DIVIDING DISTEMPER. 

" Envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings." 1 Tim. 
vi, 4. Strife and evil surmisings are near of 
kin. If contentious men can get nothing against 
their brethren, they will surmise there is some- 
thing. If they can find nothing in their actions 
to judge, they will judge their hearts. If there 
be nothing above-board, they will think there 
may be something under-board ; and from think- 
ing there may be something, they will think it 
very likely there is something ; and from likely 
there is, they will conclude there is, "surely 
there is some plot working." But this is against 
the law of love, for it thinketh no evil; all the 
good that they see in their brethren, is blasted 
by their suspicion of evil. Love would teach 
us rather by what appears to judge the best of 



38 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OP 

what appears not, than by what appears not, to 
judge the worst of what appears. 

A SPIRIT OF CONTENTION A DIVIDING DIS- 
TEMPER. 

As in some there is a strong inclination, a ve- 
hement impetus, to whoredom, which the pro- 
phet calls the spirit of whoredom ; so there is in 
others a vehement, strong disposition of heart 
to contention. These have a spirit of contention : 
they are like salamanders, who love, and live 
in the fire. They thirst after the waters of Mas- 
sah and Meribah; their temper is such, as if 
they drank no other drink than what was brewed 
of those waters, contentions and strifes ; so, what 
are as tedious to other men as death, are their 
delight. They are most in their element, when 
they are over head and ears in them. A con- 
tentious spirit will always find matter for con- 
tention. Prov. xxvi, 21 : "As coals to burning 
coals, and wood to fire, so is a contentious man 
to kindle strife:" they are ready to put their 
hands to any strife they meet with ; yet, " he 
that meddleth with strife belonging not to him, 
is like one that holdeth a dog by the ears." Prov. 
xxvi, 17. Many men have no mettle in any- 
thing but contentions. Like many jades who 
are dull in travel, they have mettle only to kick 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 39 

and to play jadish tricks. If thou hast any spi- 
rit, any zeal and courage, it is a pity it should 
be laid out in quarrels : reserve it for the cause 
of God, to strengthen thee in contending for the 
truth and the public good. 

2. practices ttjat irhrito. 

ASSOCIATING WITH WHISPERERS A DIVIDING 
PRACTICE. 

Many men of moderate spirits, if let alone, yet 
meeting with men who tell them stories, and 
speak ill of those men that heretofore they had 
a good opinion of, before they have examined 
what the truth is, there is a venom got in their 
spirits. Before they are aware, their hearts 
begin to be hot, and to rise against those men of 
whom they hear such things. Their thoughts 
are altered concerning them ; their spirits alien- 
ated ; breaches are made ; and men who are inno- 
cent wonder from whence all come. O take 
heed of these men of evil tongues ! Saint Augus- 
tine could not endure such guests at his table, 
and therefore caused these two lines to be writ 
over his table : it were well they were over some 
of yours : 

To speak ill of the absent forbear, 
Or do not sit at table here. 



40 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

NEEDLESS DISPUTES A DIVIDING PRACTICE. 

When men have got a little knowledge, they 
think it is a fine thing to be arguing and dis- 
puting in matters of religion : unnecessary dis- 
putes are their necessary practice, for they shall 
be accounted as nobody, if they have not some- 
thing to object against almost everything ; but 
in this way of theirs they shall be accounted 
knowing men, men who have an insight into 
things, who understand more than ordinary 
men do: hence they turn all their religion 
into disputes, and by them they grow giddy. 
Wine is good in its proper place and use, but 
when it fumes all up into the head, it makes it 
giddy. Knowledge is good when the strength 
of it gets to the heart, to comfort it, there to 
breed good spirits, for the strengthening it in 
the ways of holiness ; but when it flies all up 
into the head, it fills it with thousands of fan- 
cies : it causes pride and giddiness. Disputes 
draw the best spirits from the heart, by which 
they weaken it. It is a very ill sign in a man 
to have a contradicting spirit ; to get into a 
vein of disputing against anything, though it be 
good. I have read of Gregory Nazianzen, that 
he told his friends that Julian would prove to 
be a notoriously wicked man : he gave his rea- 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 41 

son, because he took such delight in disputing 
against that which was good. Disputes are 
seldom without much heart-distemper. If they 
continue long, they cause snarling one at an- 
other : and no marvel though those who snarl 
so often, do bite at last. A man shows most 
parts in the matter of truth, but most grace in 
the manner of handling it with reverence, holi- 
ness, and modesty. Rom. xiv, 1 : " Receive not 
the weak in faith to doubtful disputations." 
Here is a direct injunction against those dis- 
putes I am speaking of. Let no man say every 
truth is precious, the least truth is of more worth 
than our lives ; we must contend for every truth. 
The least truth is so precious, that we must rather 
lose our lives than deny it. You must do and suffer 
much to maintain truth, but this in an orderly way. 
First, you must be grounded in the main 
fundamentals of religion : you must be strong 
in the faith, and after that labor to edify your- 
selves in all the truths of God, so as one may 
be helpful to another. It is not for every one, 
who hath but little time, little knowledge, little 
means, little strength, to tire out himself and 
others in doubtful disputes. The Scripture is 
so much against this, as nothing can be more. 
1 Tim. i, 4 : " Which minister questions rather 
than edifying." To ask and discourse of ques- 



42 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

tions about the great things that concern thy 
soul, thy eternal state, how thou mayest live 
further to the honor of God, is good, when you 
meet together : to confer one with another what 
God hath done for your souls, to tell each other 
the experiences of your own hearts, and God's 
dealings with you ; what temptations you meet 
with, and how God helps you against them. 
Such things as these would edify. But when 
your questions are about things you are never 
likely to understand ; and if you did understand, 
they little concern you, they would not be help- 
ful to you one whit in the ways of godliness : 
in these the Holy Ghost would not have you 
spend your time. Eccles. vii, 29 : " Man was 
made upright, and he hath found out to himself 
many inventions." " Miscuerit se infinitis ques- 
tionibus." So the old Latin reads it, he hath 
mingled himself in infinite questions. If we had 
but that great question more among us, What 
shall we do to be saved ? it would cause many 
unprofitable questions to vanish. Never such 
ignorance came upon the Christian world, as in 
that age when the schoolmen were in the high- 
est esteem. All religion then was turned into 
questions, and both the mystery and the power 
of godliness were lost. The things of religion 
are rather to be believed than disputed. 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 43 

We believe fishermen, not logicians, says 
Ambrose. The devil at this day seeks to 
darken the glory of religion this way : — He 
sees so much light hath broke forth, that he 
cannot get men presently off it by profaneness, 
therefore he labours to eat out the strength of 
it, by busying them, and getting them to delight 
in multitudes of questions, and that about things 
of lesser concernment. 1 Tim. vi, 4 : " He is 
proud and knoweth nothing, but doating about 
questions, and strife of words, whereof cometh 
envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse 
dispu tings of men of corrupt minds, and desti- 
tute of the truth. These men conceit they have 
more knowledge than other men ; but the Holy 
Ghost saith they know nothing. They cry out 
much of the truth, and they contend for the truth ; 
but the Holy Ghost saith they are destitute of the 
truth. 2 Tim. ii, 22, 23: "Follow charity and 
peace, but foolish and unlearned questions avoid, 
knowing that they do gender strifes : but the ser- 
vant of the Lord must not strive." And Titus iii, 
8, 9 : " This is a faithful saying, and these things 
I will that thou affirm constantly, that they 
which have believed in God might be careful 
to maintain good works. These things are pro- 
fitable unto men. But avoid foolish questions 
and genealogies, and contentions and strivings 



44 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

about the law ; for they are unprofitable and 



vain." 



The question about the law, whether a man 
be justified by it, or by free grace in Christ, is 
not one of those foolish questions and needless 
strivings. This is a great question, for which 
we are to contend ; for our life is in it. But 
there are other questions about the law, which 
cause striving, rather than edifying. Let these 
two things be granted about the law : first, that 
we are not justified by it, but by the free grace 
of God in Christ; secondly, that what duties 
of holiness are set down in the law, we are 
bound to them by the most strong obligations. 
What need we contend further about the law ? 
Let us be established in these two, and it will 
be sufficient for our edifying. It is likely, 
when Paul wrote this Epistle to Titus, the heads 
of the people were troubled about some such 
kind of questions about the law as are among us ; 
therefore, says he, " avoid foolish questions, and 
strivings about the law." But now the ques- 
tions about the law are driven on to such a 
dangerous issue, that we have cause not only 
to be careful to avoid them, but even to tremble 
at the thought of them. It is now accounted a 
legal thing against the grace of the gospel to 
confess sin, to be humbled for sin, to make con- 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 45 

science of duty, or to be troubled in conscience 
for neglect of it. No, they thank God they are 
delivered from such things. In respect of God, 
whether they sin or not, it is all one. Yea, 
these things prevail with those who have been 
forward in a profession of religion ; who seemed 
to walk strictly, but now are grown loose. 
That faith is easily wrought which teacheth 
men to believe well of themselves, though their 
lives be ill. There is a mighty change in men's 
spirits now from that which was heretofore. 
Times have been, when any opinion that tended 
to looseness was presently disgustful and un- 
savoury, and rejected by such who made pro- 
fession of religion. 

Slaiden, in the tenth book of his commenta- 
ries, says the devil that sought to do mischief 
at Munster, was not a skilful devil, but rude 
and simple, because he sought to prevail by 
tempting men to looseness ; whereas, says he, 
if he had been a cunning devil, he would rather 
have deceived by abstaining from flesh, by ab- 
horring matrimony, by shows of wonderful low- 
liness of mind, &c. He might sooner have 
taken men this way. But truly now the most 
cunning devil sees it to be the best way ta 
attain his ends, to raise up and foment opinions 
that tend to the liberty of the flesh, so that by 

4 



46 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

it he can carry them on under the colour of 
magnifying free grace : he finds that these 
things are exceeding suitable to men's spirits 
in these times ; that they are taken in by such 
who formerly appeared so conscientious, that 
he feared he should never have been able to 
have prevailed with them. He never found a 
way like to this to prevail with such men ; yea, 
never a way like to this to choke the word, when it 
first begins to work upon the heart. He hath blast- 
ed more young converts this way, than ever he 
did by any way since he was a devil. Heretofore 
the way was to stir up others to deride them 
for following the word, and for praying ; but 
now he hath a way worth two of that, to make 
them to deride others for their conscientiousness 
in following the word and praying ; and this 
strengthened with a high pursuasion that hereby 
they are the great magnifiers of the free grace 
of God in the gospel — the only men who un- 
derstand the gospel way. This devil now looks 
upon himself and his fellows as simple and 
foolish in all their former devices. Here is an 
experiment beyond them all; seeing this, Christ 
must needs be magnified, he will magnify him 
too. Seeing the gospel must go on, he will 
put it on too. He will find out a device here, 
to strike at the practice, power, and life of god- 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 47 

liness, in a more secret and prevailing way 
than ever formerly was done. It is likely in 
this generation the former principles of god- 
liness will not be got out : but if this way 
prevails still in proportion to what it hath done, 
in a generation or two it is likely to bring 
general profaneness and licentiousness upon 
the face of the Christian world more than any 
way of Satan ever since the world began ; for 
here is a way to be loose and profane, and to 
satisfy conscience too. 

NOT KEEPING WITHIN THE BOUNDS THAT GOD 
HATH SET, A DIVIDING PRACTICE. 

First, then, when men will be meddling with that 
which concerns them not; that is out of their 
sphere. 1 Thess. iv, 11 : " Study to be quiet, and 
do your own business." Pro v. xx, 31 : " It is 
an honour for a man to cease from strife ; but 
every fool will be meddling." When manna 
was gathered, and kept in that proportion God 
would have it, it was very good; but when 
men must have more, and keep it longer than 
God would have them, then it bred worms. 
Thus it will be in all that we have or do. Let 
us keep the proportion God sets us, and all will 
be well ; but if we think to provide better for 
ourselves, by going beyond our measure, worms 
are presently bred in all. 



48 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

Peter Martyr, in an epistle to the ministers 
and such as professed the faith in Polonia, 
exhorts them to endeavour the establishing of 
discipline in the church as soon as they could, 
while people's hearts were heated with love to 
and desires after the gospel. He tells them it 
will be harder to bring it in afterward, when 
their hearts begin to grow more cold. And that 
they might not think discipline a small thing, he 
says that those churches cannot be said to pro- 
fess the gospel truly, nor solidly, which want it. 
He would have them consider it not to be the 
least part of the Christian religion ; and to know 
that the gospel is neglected by such as shall put 
off from themselves such a singular, excellent 
portion of it. But, says he, this will be the 
objection, under the colour of discipline, the 
ministers will tyrannize ; they will carry things 
according to their minds. 

PROPAGATING EVIL REPORTS, A DIVIDING 
PRACTICE. 

This may be done, you know, otherwise than by 
the tongue ; and this hath been an old dividing 
way. If we can blast the chief of a party, we 
shall do well enough with the rest; therefore 
let us make as ill interpretations of what they do 
as we possibly can. Let us fasten as ill things 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 49 

upon them as we can have any colour or pre- 
tence for. Let reports be raised, fomented, and 
spread : whether they be true or no, it makes 
no matter, something will stick. Jer. ii, 10 : 
" Report, say they, and we will report it ;" do 
but raise a report — let us be able to say we 
heard it, or there was a letter written about 
such a thing, and we will boldly assert it: the 
apprehension of it will prevail with many; 
however, these men shall not have that esteem 
in their hearts, as generally as heretofore they 
have had ; and if we once get down their esteem, 
we shall do well enough with their cause. If we 
can meet with any bold spirit that will venture 
to encounter with them in this ; that will dare to 
take upon him to gather up, or make, or aggra- 
vate, or wrest reports ; or do anything that may 
render them otherwise in the thoughts and 
hearts of men than hitherto they have been ; we 
shall break them. It is but one or two ven- 
turing the hard thoughts of men to make an 
experiment : some may be found fit for such a 
business ; we will find out ways to encourage 
them. If their hearts begin to fail, we will 
apply warm clothes to them, we will one way 
or other support them. This must be done, or 
else whatsoever we do will be to no purpose. 
Something or other must be found to serve our 



50 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

ends in this. Doth Moses prevail too much in 
the hearts of the people ? Something must be 
found against him. If we can find nothing 
against himself, yet will we find something 
against his wife. She is an Ethiopian woman. 
Num. xii, 1. And yet, who was she but the 
daughter of Jethro, to whom he had been mar- 
ried many years before ? for an Ethiopian and 
Midianitish woman were all one. But now we 
are resolved to pick out whatever we can get 
information of, though it be in things done many 
years since, when they lived in such or such 
places, in times of old : it will serve our turn ; 
we may fasten it upon them. Prov. xvi, 27 : 
"An ungodly man'diggeth up evil, and in his 
lips there is a burning fire." If he hath nothing 
above ground, he will dig something up, though 
it be, both what by God and man hath been 
buried long since. David was a public instru- 
ment of God for much good; yet (Psa. xxxi, 11,) 
"he was a reproach among his enemies, but 
especially among his neighbours." Nehemiah 
raised by God for great service, what dirt was 
cast upon him ? he was accused of sedition and 
rebellion. Paul a pestilent fellow — he and his 
company with him, turned the world upside 
down ; what evil can be devised, but was fast- 
ened upon the Christians in the primitive times ? 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 51 



<• 



They charge them as being the cause of all 
their misery. If they have ill weather ; if the 
rivers overflow ; if Nilus does not flow ; if there 
be an earthquake, plague, famine ; hale the 
Christians to the lions. At their meetings they 
said they made Thyestes suppers, who invited 
his brother to a supper, and presented him a 
dish of his own flesh, a limb of his son ! Many 
such abominable things were fastened upon 
them, as are not fit to be named. Tertullian 
tells the Christians, that they were funambulones, 
like men upon a rope : if they went one step 
awry, they were in danger to be undone by it ; 
so narrowly did their enemies watch them, and 
so malicously did they aggravate all their mis- 
carriages. Thus the most eminent after his 
time, as Athanasius, he was as miserably aspers- 
ed as ever poor man in this world by the Arian 
party. They rendered him most odius to his 
friends and strangers. In the beginning of the 
reformation the Waldenses were so aspersed, 
that the story says of them, there was not one 
arrow in the quiver of malice, but it was drawn 
forth and shot at them. Luther, Calvin, Beza, 
Oecolampadius, Bullinger, and the rest, are by 
some in writing rendered the most black and 
vile pieces that the earth bore, both in their 
lives and deaths. I find it recorded by Zuing- 



52 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

lius, that he was a man so eminent, that his 
friends made him almost a God ; and so tra- 
duced by his enemies, that one would wonder 
the earth did not open and swallow up such a 
man. 

As for the servants of God, they commit their 
names and ways to God, knowing that the Lord 
takes care of their names as well as their souls. 
If dirt be cast upon a mud wall it sticks ; but if 
upon marble, it soon washes or moulders away. 
God will in time justify his servants, even in 
your consciences, by the constancy of their 
peaceable carriage toward men, and their gra- 
cious, holy walking, with their God. Only take 
you heed that you involve not yourselves in 
the guilt of that wrong that is done unto them, 
by the readiness of your spirits to close with, 
and take content in, what evil you hear of those 
whom God accounts faithful. 

AN INORDINATE CLEAVING TO SOME, SO AS 
DENYING DUE RESPECT TO OTHERS, A DIVI- 
DING PRACTICE. 

This was the practice among the Corinthians 
which caused great divisions among them. 
Some were of Paul, some of Apollos, some of 
Cephas. No question a man may in his heart 
more reverence and prize, and outwardly show 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 53 

more respect to, those whom God makes the 
greatest instruments of good, (caeteris paribus) 
than to others. David showed more respect to 
Nathan than to Gad. Nathan was by far more 
intimate with him : the intimacy was such be- 
tween them, that Nathan thought it a very 
strange thing that David should do anything 
about the disposing of his crown, and not make 
him acquainted with it. So Valentinian the 
emperor honoured Ambrose above any of the 
bishops in his time. Such men as God is not 
pleased to make so instrumental for good as 
others, should not envy this : let them be willing 
that those should be honoured whom God 
honours : but yet people should take heed that 
they give not so much honour to one that they 
deny due respect to others. And ministers, and 
others in public places, should not entertain, 
much less seek for or rejoice in, any honour or 
respect given to them, which they see detracts 
from that esteem and countenance that are due to 
others. The weakness and folly of people in 
their inordinate giving, or denying respect, are 
often caused, but more ordinarily fomented and 
increased, by the pride and vanity of teachers, 
in seeking for, or at least in a pleasing embrac- 
ing of, such inordinate respect given to them, 
whereby others suffer much. Siding of parties 



54 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

is made, and more hurt comes to the public, 
than their honours are worth a thousand times 
over. This evil many times comes of it, 
that reason and truth from one man are little 
regarded, and error and weakness from another 
man as greedily embraced, and stiffly maintain- 
ed : whereas it should be with reason and truth, 
as it is with money : one man's money in a 
market is as good as another's ; so should one 
man's reason and truth, spoken by him, be as 
good as another's. 

BECAUSE MEN CANNOT JOIN IN ALL THINGS 
WITH OTHERS, THEY WILL JOIN IN NO- 
THING, A DIVIDING PRACTICE. 

Some men are of such dividing dispositions, 
that if they be offended with a man in any one 
thing, in hearing or otherwise, they will go away 
in a touchy mood, resolving never to hear him 
more. You think you have liberty in any fro- 
ward mood to cast off that means of good which 
God offers to you ; to partake of such men's gifts 
and graces as you please. It may be, your sto- 
mach is so high and great on a sudden, or your 
spirit is fallen into such a sullen humour, that 
you will not so much as go or send to him, to 
see, if, upon a serious and quiet examination of 
things, you may not have satisfaction in what 






HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. OO 

for the present offends. No men's spirits are 
carried on with such present, rash, heady reso- 
lutions. I believe there was never such a kind 
of spirit prevailing among such as profess god- 
liness, since the Christian religion was in the 
world. Never did so many withdraw from hear- 
ing, even those by whom they acknowledge God 
hath spoken to their hearts ; and that before they 
have gone to them, to impart what it is that scru- 
ples them, to try whether they may not get some 
satisfaction. Certainly, if you have no need of 
the word, the word hath no need of you. . You 
may easily express your discontents one to an- 
other ; you may easily say you are resolved you 
will never hear such a one any more ; but you 
cannot so easily answer this to Jesus Christ. 
When your weaknesses, the prevailing of your 
cEstempers, shall grate upon your consciences, 
this will be a great aggravation of the evil 
of them ; you neglected in a humoursome way, 
and self-willed resolution, those means that might 
have done your soul good, even such as many 
hundreds, if not thousands of souls, bless God for, 
all the days of their lives, yea, are now blessing 
God in heaven for. Heretofore you would have 
been glad of that which now you slight and re- 
ject. This is not from more light or strength 
that you have now, but from more vanity. 



56 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 



TO COMMEND AND COUNTENANCE WHAT WE 
CARE NOT FOR, IN OPPOSITION TO WHAT 
WE DISLIKE, A DIVIDING PRACTICE. 

When such as profess godliness, shall make 
much of wicked men ; shall commend them, join 
with them, embrace them, yea, be well pleased 
with the bitterness, boisterousness, and boldness, 
of their daring spirits, because there may be use 
made of them, against those men and ways they 
differ from ; this is an evil which brings guilt 
upon themselves, and makes the division between 
them and their brethren very great. If your 
hearts be right, and your cause be good, you 
need not make use of anything that is evil, to 
comfort your hearts, or to maintain your cause. 
The Lord will not be beholden to the evil, the 
bitterness of men's spirits, for the furtherance 
of his cause ; and why should you ? God will 
not take the wicked by the hand ; neither should*- 
est thou. Why do you seek to strengthen your- 
selves by stirring up vile men to join with you ; 
such as heretofore your hearts were opposite to ? 
How comes it to pass you can close so lovingly 
now ? You can smile one upon another, and 
shake hands together. How comes it to pass 
you do rejoice the hearts of evil men ; they en- 
courage you, and you encourage them ? Those 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 57 

unsavoury, bitter expressions, that come from 
them you can smile at and be well pleased with, 
because they are against such as differ from you. 
Blow up that sparkle of ingenuity that hereto- 
fore hath been in you. Lay your hands upon 
your hearts, bethink yourselves, Is it the Spirit 
of Jesus Christ that actuates us in such a way 
wherein we are ? Surely this is not the way of 
peace, but of division and confusion. 

REVENGE, A DIVIDING PRACTICE. 

When any provoke you, you say you will be 
even with him. There is a way whereby you 
may be not even with him, but above him ; that 
is, forgive him. Practising revenge is the way 
to continue divisions to the end of the world. 
Such offend me, therefore I will offend them ; 
and therefore they offend me again, and I them, 
and so it may run in infinitum. They deny me 
a kindness, therefore I will deny them, and there- 
fore they will deny me ; so these unkindnesses 
run on endlessly. Divisions will have a line 
of succession. Where will it, where can it stop, 
if this be the way of men ? 

A gentleman of very good credit, who lived 
at court many years, told me, that himself once 
heard a great man in the kingdom say he never 
forgave a man in his life : and I am moved the 



58 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

rather to believe it to be so, because I have been 
told by some other gentlemen, that the same 
man would, when he was walking alone, speak 
to himself, and clap his hands upon his breast, 
and swear by the name of God, that " he would 
be revenged, he would be revenged." And that 
she who lay in his bosom was wont to sit alone 
and sing to herself, " Revenge ! revenge ! how 
sweet is revenge !" 



THE EVILS OF DIVISIONS. 

What heart that hath any tenderness in it bleeds 
not in the sense of these sore and dreadful heart 
divisions there are among us? The evil there 
is in them is beyond what tongue or pen can ex- 
press. Take a view of it under these two heads. 
1st. The good they hinder. 2d. The sin they 
cause. 

1 — ®l)e <&oob tt)eg f)inbn\ 

FIRST. THE QUIET, COMFORT, AND SWEET- 
NESS OF OUR SPIRITS, ARE HINDERED BY 
DIVISIONS. 

They put the spirit out of tune : men who have 
heretofore had sweet spirits full of ingenuity, 
since they have interested themselves in these 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 59 

divisions, have lost their sweetness, their inge- 
nuity is gone. When the bee stings, she leaves 
her sting behind her, and never gathers honey 
more. Men by stinging one another, do not lose 
their stings, but they lose their honey ; they are 
never like to have that sweetness in their hearts 
that heretofore they had. " Shall I lose my sweet- 
ness," says the fig-tree, " and go to be promoted 
over the trees ?" Why dost thou not reason thus 
with thy spirit? Shall I lose my sweetness in 
contending to get my will, to be above others ? 
God forbid ! There was a time that both myself 
and others found much sweetness in the temper 
of our spirit. There was nothing but peaceable- 
ness, quiet, calmness, contentedness, in it : and 
how comfortable was such a temper of spirit ! 
Methought, w T hen my spirit was in that sweet 
frame, all things were sweet to me ; but since I 
have been interested in quarrels and conten- 
tions it hath been far otherwise. Prov. xv, 4. 
Perverseness in the tongue causes a breach in 
the spirit. Contentions cause much perverse- 
ness in men's tongues, and this causes a breach 
in their spirits. Your contending costs you 
dear. Though it were in nothing else, yet the 
loss of this sweetness of spirit makes it very 
costly to you. All the wrong that you should 
have put up if you had not contended, had not 



60 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

been so great an evil to you as this one thing is. 
There is nothing more contrary to ingenuity 
than quarrelsomeness. It is reported of Melanc- 
thon, that when he was to die he had this speech, 
and Stringelius at his death had the same : " I 
desire to depart this life for two causes ; first, 
that I may enjoy the desired sight of the Son 
of God, and the church in heaven. Secondly ? 
that I may be delivered from the fierce and im- 
placable hatred of divines." There was much 
disputing, contending, quarrelling, in those times, 
which was so tedious to the spirits of those good 
men, as it made them the more willing to die, 
that they might be where their souls should be 
at rest. That saint of God, old Mr. Dodd, never 
loved to meddle with controversies ; he gave this 
reason, he found his heart the worse when he 
did. Men seldom come away from hot disputes, 
or any other contentions, but their spirits are 
altered for the worse. They find it so, and 
others find it in them. If a man has been abroad, 
and met with company with whom he hath been 
contending, his wife, children, servants, find that 
he comes not home with the same spirit that he 
went out with. 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 61 

SECONDLY. THEY HINDER THE FREEDOM OF 
A MAN'S SPIRIT, WHICH A WISE MAN SETS A 
HIGH PRICE UPON. 

The strength of many men's spirits is spent in 
contentions. They have no command of them 
in anything else. When a man is once engaged 
in a contest, he knows not how to get off. Con- 
tention is a great snare to a man : he wishes he 
had never meddled with it ; he is weary of it : 
but knows not how to come off fairly. We read 
of Moses (Deut. xxxiv, 7) that he was a hun- 
dred and twenty years old when he died ; his 
eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. 
Some give this to be one reason of such a won- 
derful preservation of his health and strength, 
the meekness of his spirit. God witnesses of 
him, (Num. xii, 3,) that he was the meekest 
man upon the face of the earth. 

THIRDLY. THEY HINDER THE SWEETNESS OF 
CHRISTIAN CONVERSE AND COMMUNION. 

You know your communion with the saints was 
wont to be far more sweet than now it is. Ye 
were wont to have your hearts spring at the 
sight of one another : Ipse aspectus boni viri 
delectat, says Seneca. The very sight of a good 
man delights. The sight of a godly man was 

5 



62 CAUSES, EVILS, CUKES, OF 

wont to delight us otherwise than now it does. 
You look one upon another now sourly, with 
lowering countenance, and withdraw from one 
another. Your comforts were wont to be dou- 
ble, treble, sevenfold, a hundred fold, according 
to that society of saints you conversed withal. 
One godly man accounted it the joy of his heart 
that he had anything that he could communicate 
to another godly man, and the other had the 
like joy that he had anything to communicate 
to him. Thus comforts were multiplied. But 
now your comforts are single. O the sweetness, 
the suitableness, there were wont to be in the 
spirits of Christians ! Shall I say suitableness ? 
It was blessed oneness of heart. They did as it 
were exchange souls one with another every day. 
Their souls did close clasp one with, and cleave 
one to, another ! O how did they love to open their 
heart one to another! What delight was there 
in pouring forth their spirits into one another j 
What cheerfulness was there w r ont to be in their 
meeting ! They eat their bread together with 
singleness of heart and joy, praising the Lord. 
There were no such cheerful meetings in the 
world, as the meetings of the saints were wont 
to be. They parted one from another with 
their souls bound up one in another : their 
hearts warmed, enlarged, resolved, strengthened, 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 63 

in God's ways. But now they cannot meet 
together but they fall a jarring, contending one 
with another, and part with spirits estranged 
from, soured, and imbittered one against an- 
other ; their hearts weakened, and more unset- 
tled in the things of God than before. Here- 
tofore when they were absent one from another, 
yet the remembrance one of another was joyful. 
But these days seem to be gone. Where is 
there that opening of secrets one to another as 
formerly ? Every one is afraid of another. 
What sweet visits were there wont to be ! What 
bearing one another's burdens ! What heart- 
encouraging letters ! It was with the saints as 
in Tertullian's time, Christians called one an- 
other brethren, and were ready to die for one 
another. But now these are opposed to one an- 
other's spirits : they bring evil upon one another. 

FOURTHLY. THEY HINDER OUR TIME. 

Abundance of time is spent about our divisions, 
which we are not able to give account to God 
for. When men are engaged in contentions, 
they will follow them night and day : whatever 
business be neglected^ to be sure that must not. 
Yea, the choice of our time, that was wont to 
be spent in meditation, reading, prayer, is now 
spent in contending and wrangling. Those re- 



64 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

tired times that we were wont to converse with 
God in, are now spent in the workings of our 
own thoughts about divisions ; and when we 
come abroad, then a great part of our time is 
given up in going, first to this body, and then 
to the other, to help forward and foment matter 
of division. Of ail the time of a man's life, that 
time that is spent in lawing and quarrelling is the 
worst; and happy it were for many, that it 
might not be reckoned among the days, weeks, 
or months, of their lives. 

FIFTHLY. THEY HINDER OUR PRAYERS. 

" If two or three agree together touching any- 
thing they shall ask, it shall be done for them 
of my Father," says Christ. Matt, xviii, 19. 
1 Tim. ii, 8 : " I will that men pray, lifting up 
their hands, without wrath." When Daniel was 
in a strait, he goes to his companions, and de- 
sires them to lift up prayers to God for him. 
Dan. ii, 17. There was a sweet agreement be- 
tween them ; hence their stock and trade in 
prayer one with another. 1 Pet. iii, 7. The 
apostle giving rules for a peaceable, loving life, 
between man and wife. The woman must be 
meek, and the man live with his wife as a man 
of knowledge ; and they must walk together as 
the heirs of life. Why so ? " That your prayers 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 65 

may not be hindered." Private contentions in 
families are great hinderances of family prayers : 
so our public divisions and contentions are the 
great hinderance of the prayers of Christians 
in a more public way. How were they wont 
to pour forth their hearts in prayer together ! 
but now it is otherwise. Men do not now walk 
together as the heirs of life ; therefore their 
prayers are hindered. God accepts not of our 
gift, if we offer it when our hearts are at a 
distance from our brethren. When breaches 
continue, and we are not reconciled, you know 
Christ requires us to leave our gift at the altar, 
till reconciliation be made. It is the Spirit of 
God in the saints that is the spirit of prayer : 
now God's Spirit is a dove-like, meek, quiet, 
and peaceable spirit. 

SIXTHLY. THEY HINDER THE USE OF OUR 
GIFTS. 

When vessels are soured with vinegar, they 
spoil liquor that is poured into them ; they 
make it good for nothing. Many men have 
excellent gifts, but they are in such sour, vinegar 
spirits, that they are of little or no use in church 
and commonwealth. 

1. In these times of division, many men ex- 
ercise their gifts and parts in little or nothing 



66 CAUSES, EVILS, CUKES, OP 

else but in matters of division. Do you think 
that God hath given you such parts for no other 
end but this ? 

2. They have no hearts to impart to their 
brethren their gifts, in counselling, admonish- 
ing, strengthening, and comforting ; no, their 
hearts are estranged from them, they care 
not to have anything to do with them. But do 
you think you are so far your own men, that 
you may keep in or employ your talents as 
you please ? Are you not the stewards of Christ? 
Are they not given to you for the edification 
of your brethren, as well as for good to your- 
selves ? Can this satisfy your consciences ? Such 
a one differs from you ; he hath angered you ; 
therefore though you have opportunity of being 
useful to him, yet you refuse it, as if it were at 
your liberty to lay out your abilities for good, or 
not : certainly this is not according to the mind 
of Christ. 1 Cor. xii, 7 : " The manifestation of 
the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal." 

3. If you do make use of your gifts for the 
good of others, yet dissensions between you 
will hinder the profit of them. You are not 
like to do any good by them. Except they be 
carried on by the oil of love, they will not soak 
into men's hearts. When did you ever know 
a wrangling, contentious minister, (though his 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 67 

gifts were never so excellent,) do good among 
his people ? And what comfort can a man have 
of his life, if he be laid aside by God as a use- 
less man ? 

4. These divisions cause men to make the 
gifts of others useless to themselves, whereas 
God puts opportunity into men's hands to get 
much good by those excellent gifts their brethren 
have ; yet if there be any difference between 
them, either they will not acknowledge the gifts 
of God in them, or otherwise they have no 
mind to receive from them that good they 
might have, because their hearts are not with 
them. 

SEVENTHLY. THEY HINDER OUR GRACES. 

How little of God and Christ, how little 
spiritualness in professors of religion, since these 
rents and divisions have been among us, in 
comparison of what in former times hath ap- 
peared ! " As the members of the body," says 
Augustine, " are not quickened, except they be 
joined, so even the members of Christ do not 
receive of the quickening virtue of Christ, except 
they be joined." Here is the reason of the 
deadness, coldness, emptiness, barrenness, vanity 
of your spirits, you are not joined. O where 
are the heavenly Christians that were wont to 



68 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

be — those humble, those holy, gracious souls, 
who lived by faith, who were able to deny 
themselves ; their whole lives were nothing but 
a continual exercise of self-denial ; who were 
not only patient, but joyful, under afflictions? 
Where are those watchful Christians who walk- 
ed close with God ; who enjoyed such spiritual 
communion with him, as made their faces shine 
in their holy, heavenly conversations ? Where 
are those tender, broken-hearted Christians, 
that were wont to be, who lived upon the word, 
to whom the word was more sweet than honey 
and the honey-comb? Now there is another 
kind of professors of religion, as if godliness 
in these days were not of the same kind with 
that which was formerly. If our forefathers 
who were the most holy, and gracious, should 
rise again, they would not own those for pro- 
fessors of religion who now make a great noise, 
and keep a great stir about religion, as if they 
had got up higher than their forefathers had, 
and yet are loose, vain, frothy, false in their 
way. Certainly, those holy, gracious saints, 
whom these new professors slight, were they 
alive would abominate them, as the great dis- 
grace of, and dishonour to, Jesus Christ and 
his saints. Our divisions hinder the breaking 
forth of the lustre, the shine of religion in the 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 69 

beauty and glory of it. The fire of our conten- 
tions raises such a smoke, that it all besmothers 
us; it takes away our comeliness: it makes us 
look black. No amiableness appears in the 
ways of religion to convince men of the excel- 
lency of them. Scratched faces, rent and torn 
garments, we account a shame to us. Distracted, 
divided spirits, rending and tearing one another, 
and from one another in our divided ways. O 
how uncomely doth it render us, and that pro- 
fession of religion that we take upon us ! The 
Turks were wont to wonder much at our Eng- 
lishmen for pinking and cutting their clothes, 
counting them little better than madmen for 
making holes in whole cloth, which time of 
itself would tear too soon : the cuts, rents, 
slashes, that are in our spirits in our divisions, 
are much more uncomely, and may justly render 
us foolish and mad in the eyes of all that behold 
us. Our divisions hinder our strength. If you 
untwist a cable, how weak is it in the several- 
parts of it! A threefold cord is not easily 
broken ; but a single one is. Divide a strong 
current into several rivulets, and how shallow 
and weak will the course of the water be! 
They hinder our doing good in public: that 
which concerns many, must be done by many ; 
but how can two, much less many, walk 



70 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

together, if they be not agreed ? That which 
one does the other seeks to undo. Now, although 
God can turn whatever is contrary to his work 
to the furtherance of it, yet man cannot do so. 
When God would hinder the work of building 
Babel, he conies down and confounds their 
tongues, so they could not join together in it. 
Thus when the devil would hinder the work of 
Jerusalem, he knows no way more likely than 
by dividing the hearts of those who are employ- 
ed, if he possibly can, that thereby he might 
bring confusion. 

They hinder our own ends. None are more 
crossed in their ends and designs than conten- 
tious people. We have not the mutual benefit 
of one another's estates, houses, the many ways 
of accommodation and help for one another, as 
heretofore we were wont to have. Now every 
man shifts for himself; scarce any man who 
knew what the heartiness of friendship meant, 
enjoys those outward accommodations as he was 
wont. They hinder the blessing of God. The 
Psalmist commending the love of brethren, con- 
cludes : " There the Lord commanded the bless- 
ing, even life for evermore." Psalm, cxxxiii. 
There ! that is, where the love of brethren is, 
there is a blessing, a blessing commanded by 
God; it comes with power, and this no less 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 71 

than life, and this life for evermore. " God dwells 
in Salem/' says Luther, " not in Babylon : where 
there is peace, not where there is confusion." 

Thus you see how great evil there is in our 
divisions, in respect to what good we lose by 
them. Now then consider, whether it be possible 
that any gain we can get by them can recom- 
pense this loss. Can anything got by them 
quit the cost? But if it could be supposed 
our loss may be recompensed, yet I am sure 
nothing can countervail the evil there is in them, 
in respect of the sinfulness of them. That is 
the next head. 

2. — ®l)c Sinfulness of our iDbisions. 

Though there be sin in many things mentioned, 
yet we considered them in reference to our good 
that was hindered ; but now let us consider what 
venom of sin there is in them. The number 2 
hath been accounted accursed, because it was 
the first that parted from unity. The departure 
from that unity God would have, is a very 
cursed thing ; for it hath much sin in it. That 
which St. Augustine says of original sin we 
may well apply to our divisions ; — they are sin, 
the punishment of sin, the cause of sin, nothing 
but a heap of sin. 

First, they are against the solemn charge and 



72 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

command of God, and of Jesus Christ, 1 John 
iii, 23: "This is his commandment, that we 
should believe on the name of his Son Jesus 
Christ, and love one another as he gave us 
commandment." It is not an arbitrary thing 
that we should love one another ; but it is the 
command of God, and a great command joined 
to that of believing in his Son Jesus Christ. 
The one is as truly necessary to salvation as the 
other. Let men talk of faith, of believing on 
the Son of God, of trusting to free grace in 
Christ ; yet if they have dividing, contending 
spirits, no love, no sweetness, no grace of union 
with the saints, their faith is a dead faith. And 
because God stands much upon this to have his 
people live together in love, at the beginning of 
the verse he says, " It is his commandment ;" at 
the end of the verse he says, " He gave us com- 
mandment." And it is also observable, that he 
says of the commandment of love, that "he 
gave us that commandment." It is a gift, for it 
is a sweet commandment. We should not only 
submit to it, as being bound by the authority of 
it ; but we should open our hearts to it, and 
embrace it joyfully as a gift of God. The com- 
mandment of love God gives us as a gift 
from his love. The excellency of these com- 
mandments are further amplified, verse 24: 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 73 

"And lie that keepeth his commandments dwell- 
eth in him, and he in him." I do not think 
that you can find, in all the Scripture, any 
command of God in one verse and a piece of 
another, so inculcated and commended. Again, 
chap, iv, 21 : " This commandment have we 
from him, that he who loveth God loveth his 
brother also." If you think you have any 
command to love God, or to believe in Jesus 
Christ, know the same authority lays a com- 
mand upon you, to love your brother also. 
John xv, 12 : "This is my commandment, that 
ye love one another as I have loved you :" and 
verse 17 : " These things I command you, that 
ye love one another." Christ, you see, likewise 
makes a great matter of the saints loving one 
another. Surely the sin, then, must needs be 
great that breaks such a great commandment 
as this, upon which God the Father, and Jesus 
Christ his Son, lay so much weight. 

Secondly. These unkind and unloving di- 
visions are against the prayer of Jesus Christ ; 
yea, against that prayer he made for us a little 
before he died. John xvii, 21, he prayed to 
his Father, that all who did believe, and should 
after believe on him, might be one as his Father 
is in him, and he is in his Father, and that they 
" may be one in the Father and him." As if 



74 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

he should say, O Father, I am now going out 
of the world ; and I foresee, when I am gone, 
even those whom thou hast given me, who are 
one in me and in thee, will meet with strong 
temptations to divide them one from another. 
But, O Father, I beseech thee, let thy fatherly 
care be over them, to keep their hearts together, 
that they may be united in the strongest union 
that is possible for creatures to be united in ! 
O Father, let them be one, as thou and I am 
one ! Would we not be loath to lose the benefit 
of that heavenly prayer of Christ for us in the 
seventeenth of John? Read it over; see what 
soul-ravishing excellency there is in it, seeing he 
hath expressly said he intended us who live 
now in it, as well as those disciples who then 
lived with him. Let us prize this prayer, as 
being more to us than ten thousand worlds. 
Luther writes a chiding letter to Melancthon. 
" By those sinful, distrustful fears, and carking 
thoughts of yours," says he, " you do Irritas fa- 
cere prceces nostras, you make void our prayers." 
How great, then, is our divisions ! By them we 
do what in us lies to make void, as concerning 
us, the prayer, that blessed prayer, of Jesus 
Christ. 

Thirdly. Our divisions are very dishonour- 
able to Jesus Christ, Were it that they dark- 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 75 

ened our names only, it were not so much ; but 
that which darkens the glory of Jesus Christ, 
should go very near unto us. I have read of 
Alexander Severus, seeing two Christians con- 
tending one with another, commanded them 
that they should not presume to take the name of 
Christians upon themselves any longer; "For," 
says he, "you dishonour your Master, Christ, 
whose disciples you profess to be. It is a dis- 
honour to a general to have his army routed 
and run into confusion." The devil seems to 
prevail against us in these our divisions, so as 
to rout us. John xvii, 21, 23, is a notable 
scripture to show the sinfulness of our divisions, 
in the dishonour they put upon Christ ; and it 
may be as strong an argument against them as 
any I know in the book of God. Christ pray- 
ing to the Father for the union of his saints, 
uses this argument, O Father, let this be grant- 
ed, " that the world may believe that thou hast 
sent me." And again, ver. 23 : " Let them be 
perfect in one, that the world may know that 
thou hast sent me." If they be not united one 
to another in love and peace, but have a spirit 
of division ruling among them, what will the 
world think ? Surely that thou didst not send 
me. That I who am their head, their teacher, 
and Lord, never came from thee ; for thou art 



76 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

wisdom, holiness, and love ; and if I had come 
from thee, then those who own me to be theirs, 
and whom I own to be mine, would hold forth 
in their conversations something of that spirit 
of holiness, wisdom, and love, there is in thee. 
But when the world does not see this in them, 
but the clean contrary, they will never believe 
that I came from thee. Those truths I came 
into the world to make known as from thee, O 
Father, will not be believed, but rather perse- 
cuted ; if those who profess them, by their 
divisions one from another, and oppositions one 
against another, show forth a spirit of pride, 
folly, envy, and frowardness. Therefore, O 
Father, let them be, as thou and T am, one. If 
this petition be not granted, how shall I look 
the world in the face ? I shall be contemned in 
the world. What, am I cut down from thee 
for such glorious ends as, indeed, those were for 
which I came into the world ; and when I should 
come to attain those ends for which I came, 
shall there be such a carriage in those who 
do profess my name, that by it the world shall 
persuade themselves that thou didst never send 
me ? O what a sore evil would this be ! Surely 
any Christian heart must needs tremble at the 
least thought of having a hand in so great an 
evil as this is. 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 77 

Fourthly. Divisions are sinful, because they 
grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Eph. iv, 30, 31 : 
" Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby 
ye are sealed to the day of redemption." Surely 
there is no godly heart but will say, " O God, 
forbid that I should do anything to grieve the 
good Spirit of God. It is the Spirit that hath 
enlightened me, that revealed the great mys- 
teries of God, of Christ, of eternal life, unto me. 
It is that Spirit that hath drawn my soul to 
Jesus Christ ; that hath comforted it with those 
consolations that are more to me than ten thou- 
sand worlds: the Spirit that hath strength- 
ened me, that helps me against temptations, that 
carries me through difficulties, that enables me 
to rejoice in tribulations : the Spirit that hath 
sealed me to the day of redemption : and now 
shall I be guilty of so great a sin as to grieve 
this blessed Spirit of the Lord ? If I did but 
know wherein I have grieved it, it could not 
but make my soul to bleed within me, that I 
should have such a wretched heart to grieve 
this Holy Spirit, by whom my soul hath enjoyed 
so much good. I hope I should for ever here- 
after take heed of that thing. I would rather 
suffer any grief in the world to mine own spirit, 
than be any occasion of grief to that blessed 

Spirit of God." But would you know what it is 

6 



78 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

that hath grieved it, and what it is that is like 
to grieve it further? Mark what follows, 
verse 31 : " Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, 
clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from 
you, with all malice." And would you do that 
which may please the Holy Spirit ? ! God 
knows it would be the greatest joy in the world 
for me to do it. Then observe verse 32 : "Be 
ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving 
one another; even as God for Christ's sake 
hath forgiven you." 

Fifthly. These divisions do grieve and offend 
our brethren. This should not be a light matter 
with us. Christ accounts it a great evil to 
offend one of his little ones. We may think it 
a little matter to give offence to some of God's 
people who are poor and mean in the world; 
so long as we have the bravery of it, and the 
countenance of great men, no matter for them. 
But, friend, whatever slight thoughts thou hast 
of it, Christ thinks it a great matter. You may 
look upon them as under you ; the times may 
favour you more than them : but if you shall 
give them cause to go to God, to make their 
moans to him of any ill usage they have had 
from you, and say, " Lord, thou knowest I was 
for peace to the uttermost I could, so far as I 
was able to see thy word for my guide ; but 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 79 

these who heretofore were as brethren to me, 
now their spirits are estranged, their hearts are 
imbittered, their words and their carriage are 
very grievous, and all because I cannot come 
up to what their opinions, their ways are." Cer- 
tainly this would prove very ill to you, regard 
it as lightly as you will. 

It may be when others carry themselves to- 
ward you otherwise than you expected, you 
vent yourselves against them in quarrelling, in 
giving ill language, in vilifying and scorning. 
Your strength runs out this way : but there are 
a generation of men, who being wronged, im- 
prove their strength in patient bearing, yea, in 
making their moan to God in the exercise of 
faith, in committing their cause to him. In 
Matt, xviii, 24-31, you have the story of the 
servant who had ten thousand talents forgiven 
him, who yet took his fellow-servant by the 
throat, who owed him a hundred pence, and 
put him into prison. The text says, " When 
his fellow-servants saw what was done, they 
were sorry, and came and told their lord what 
was done." You do not hear them cry out of 
their fellow-servant, " O what a vile, base wretch, 
was he, who would deal thus with his fellow !" 
No ; but they went and told their lord. It is 
not the way of Christians when they apprehend 



80 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

wrong, to give ill language, to seek to right 
themselves or others by bitter, provoking ex- 
pressions ; but their hearts being filled with 
grief, if they must needs vent it, if quiet debates 
with their brethren will not ease them, let them 
vent themselves in the pouring forth their com- 
plaints to the Lord. 

Sixthly. There is much sin in our divisions ; 
for they stir up much corruption on all sides, 
both in ourselves and others. As if you shake 
a glass of water that has dirt in the bottom, the 
dirt spreads itself all over, so doth the dirty 
stuff of our hearts. These divisions causing a 
commotion in them, those corruptions are now 
discovered, that neither ourselves nor others 
had thought had been in us. Do not say in 
your hearts, and it may be one to another, Who 
would have thought it possible that so much 
filthy stuff should lie so long in such men's 
hearts undiscovered, which now appears since 
these unhappy divisions have been among us ? 
James iii, 16: "Where there is envying and 
strife, there is confusion, and every evil work." 
When snakes are cold, they lie still ; but if the 
heat of fire comes to them, then they hiss, and 
put forth their stings. Thus men's corruptions 
heat by the fire of contention that is kindled 
among us, till they begin to stir, to act, yea, to 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 81 

rise very high. The reason that some give of 
that prohibition of the apostle, (Ephes. iv,) "Let 
not the sun go down upon your wrath ;" which 
also I find Chrysostom upon the place gives ; is 
this, because when men's wrath is stirred by 
contending, if it continue in the heat of it till 
night, as they lie upon their beds, their corrup- 
tions will be boiling : they will lie musing and 
plotting against those that contend with them ; 
their thoughts in the night season will work 
up their corruptions to a great height. Have 
you not found it so, when the sun was gone 
down upon your wrath, you could hardly sleep 
that night ? William the Conqueror, in his first 
year, commanded that every night, at eight 
o'clock, a bell should be rung, and that all peo- 
ple then should put out their fire, which they 
called the Curfew Bell. It were well if some 
were admonished every night to cover the fire 
of their passions. / 

We stir up likewise the corruptions of others, 
in these our divisions. Do you not see those / 
distempers, formerly mentioned, working and 
breaking forth in your brethren, when you pro- 
voke them in your contending with them ? O 
pity, pity thy brother, if thou canst not pity thy- 
self ! Does it not grieve thee that thy brother 
should bring sin upon himself? Were it not bet- 



82 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

ter for thee to suffer, than for thy brother to sin ? 
It is an evil thing to be an occasion of grief to 
our brethren. "The Lord does not willingly 
grieve the children of men;" but to be an oc- 
casion of sin to them is much worse. When did 
you ever meet with your brethren, and had 
your spirits put into any heat, but after your 
parting, when you began to be cool, you then 
saw cause to grieve for unbeseeming words, car- 
riage, and breakings forth of passion, that there 
was either in you or them. Sometimes in a fro- 
ward debate there is more sin committed in one 
hour than there is otherwise in a whole twelve- 
month, between those who live lovingly and 
sweetly together. Yea, sometimes such cor- 
ruptions are stirred by differences and divisions 
that are incompatible to a saint; namely, the 
rejoicing in the evil of other men, yea, of godly 
men. David said his zeal had even consumed 
him, because his enemies had forgotten God's 
word. But some men's zeal doth even consume 
them, because their friends do remember God's 
word. The more inoffensively they walk, the 
more are they troubled. It were endless to 
mention the uncharitableness, wrong, malice, 
injustice, oppression, cruelty, with the abundance 
of other sins, that are caused by our divisions. 
Seventhly. Yet further, as they stir up sin, 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 83 

so they harden in sin, as fire hardens the clay 
into brick. Thus are men's hearts hardened in 
evil by our divisions ; men who heretofore had 
tender spirits, whose hearts were ready to re- 
lent upon any brotherly admonition; but now 
they are stiff, they stand out sturdily, yea, be- 
have themselves scornfully. O this fire of con- 
tention hath baked their lusts, hath hardened 
their hearts ! Ezek. xi. God promises to give 
his people one heart, which should be a heart 
of flesh. While the hearts of the saints are 
united, they are tender ; but when they divide, 
they grow hard. Hence is the reason why 
brethren being fallen out, it is so hard to con- 
vince either of them of any ill carriage. They 
are angry, and they think they do well to be 
angry, and all because their hearts are hardened. 
Jonah was in a pettish mood, and his heart was 
hardened with it. Let God himself come now 
to convince him, he stands it out, he will by no 
means acknowledge himself faulty: — no, what 
he does he will justify, he does well to be angry. 
Eighthly. There is much sin in them, for they 
are means to keep off others from God's ways. 
If this be their religion, say they, for men to 
quarrel one with another, we will have none of 
it. Carnal-hearted men are apt to charge re- 
ligion with all the miscarriages of the professors 



84 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

of it You know what Saint Paul says, 1 Cor. 
xiv : " If men speak with strange tongues, and 
there comes in one unlearned, will they not be 
to him as barbarians ; will they not say they are 
mad ?" Thus when the men of the world look 
upon those who profess religion, and see their 
carriage, their ways strange, and divided among 
themselves, will they not think them even as 
mad people ? " I charge you," says the church, 
(Cant, iii, 5,) " by the roes and by the hinds, that 
you stir not up my beloved till he please." This 
by some is interpreted thus, The roes and hinds 
are shy and fearful creatures, and by them are 
signified such as are observers of the ways of 
the church, and ready to take offence at anything 
they see amiss in them : therefore I charge you, 
say those who are faithful, that you do nothing 
that may make any disturbance in the church, 
whereby such as are observers of your ways 
shall be offended. If they see miscarriages in 
you, they will fly off. And of all miscarriages, 
there are none more offensive to the lookers on 
than wranglings and contendings. When they 
see this, they will conclude, surely this is not the 
way of Christ. 

They are a very ill improvement of our zeal 
and courage. Zeal and courage have such an 
excellency in them, that it is a thousand pities 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 85 

they should have no other improvement, than to 
raise and maintain quarrels and divisions. The 
Lord hath use for every man's zeal and courage. 
Keserve them for him, for some notable work 
that God hath for thee to do, and do not spend 
them about that from whence comes no good. 
If soldiers lying near their enemies, having no 
store of powder, should spend what they have in 
making squibs and fire-works, would they not 
be condemned of folly, if not of treachery, by all? 
Those who have the most zeal and courage, 
have little enough to serve their turn for the 
service that God requires of them : and must 
this be spent in unworthy babblings, wranglings, 
and quarrellings ? That man's body is in an ill 
condition that has a sore to which the humours 
have recourse to feed it, leaving the supply of 
the parts of the body that are to be nourished 
and maintained by them: the sore is fed, but 
the other parts grow lank and feeble. Thus it 
is with many men's spirits ; they are distemper- 
ed : and then what abilities they have, are drawn 
away to feed those distempers. What account 
can be given to God of such a use of them as 
this? 

They make very much against the cause of 
Christ now in hand, the great work of reforma- 
tion. Had we joined hand in hand together, 



86 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

and set ourselves to serve the Lord with one 
shoulder, what abundance of service might have 
been done ! how high might the honour of Christ 
been advanced among us before this day ! But 
while one draws one way, another another ; one 
seeks to set up, and another labours to pull down ; 
how can the work go on ? You will say, that is 
true indeed, things would go on apace, if those 
who differ from others would give up their judg- 
ments and practices to them, to believe what they 
believe, and to do what they do. But how can 
this be ? You would not have them give up their 
judgments or practices to them, till they know 
them to be right ; and how can that be, until they, 
by discussing, praying, reading, and meditating, 
find that out ? I answer, If some men had cer- 
tainly found out the right, and other men knew 
certainly that they had done so, then the work 
were at an end. 

These our dissentions are against a great part 
of the covenant of grace which God hath made 
with his people in Christ, and those many pro- 
mises of so much peace that there is to be in the 
times of the gospel. We by these do that which 
tends to make void the covenant ; we do, as it 
were, say Christ is not come in the flesh. 1 John 
iv, 3 : " Every spirit that confesseth not that 
Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God ; and 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 87 

this is that spirit of antichrist." Many men talk 
much of antichrist ; but such as profess the gos- 
pel, and yet are of unpeaceable, snarling, con- 
tending spirits, they have the spirit of antichrist ; 
and they do not confess that Jesus Christ is come 
in the flesh. It is an argument the Jews have 
against Christ ; say they, If he were come, then 
that prophecy, Isaiah xi, 6, would be fulfilled : 
"The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the 
leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the cow 
and the bear shall feed together," &c. But this 
is not so. They also bring many other places 
where peace is prophesied of, as Isaiah ix, 7 : 
" Of the increase of his government and peace 
shall be no end." Those who seek for this go- 
vernment, should seek for his peace also. 

By our divisions we cross that end that God 
aimed at, in the variety of his administrations 
in the gifts and graces of men. That this 
was not Christ's end in dispensing gifts and 
graces in a different way, that there might be 
fuel administered to contentions and quarrels, 
but rather to exercise love, we spake to 
before. 



88 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 



THE CUEES OF DIVISIONS. 

What gracious heart is not cut asunder with 
grief for those sore and fearful evils that there 
are in, and come from, our divisions ; and is not 
even the second time cut asunder with careful 
thoughts in itself what may be done to heal 
them? 

Matt, vi, 25, Christ forbids that carking care 
that cuts our hearts, when it is in matters con- 
cerning ourselves, yea, for our lives. " Take no 
thought for your life ;' so it is in your books : but 
the word signifies, Do not take such thought as 
should cut your hearts asunder : so v, 28. Why 
do you divide your hearts? But though this 
charge of Christ be doubled and doubled again, 
against our careful, dividing, cutting thoughts 
about ourselves ; yet for the uniting the hearts 
of the saints together, for the good of the church, 
this heart-cutting care is not only allowed, but 
required. 1 Cor. xii, 25 : " That there should 
be no schism in the body ; but that the members 
should have the same care one for another." 
The words are, " That the members may care 
the same thing one for another ;" and that with 
dividing, cutting care, that there might be no 
schism in the body. The word that is here for 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 89 

care, is the same that in the former places in 
the sixth of Matthew is forbidden. 

The expressions of my thoughtful cares about 
this work are the subject of this time. When I 
set myself about it, my heart doth even ache 
within me, at the apprehension of the difficulty 
of it. There are some diseases that are called 
opprobria medicorum, the disgraces of physi- 
cians ; because they know not what to say or 
do to them : or if they do anything, it is to little 
purpose. If there be any soul disease that is 
opprobrium theologorum, the disgrace of divines, 
it is this of contention and division. How little 
has all that they have studied, and endeavoured 
to do, prevailed with the hearts of men ! What 
shall we do ? Shall we but join in this one thing, 
to sit down together, and mourn one over an- 
other, till we have dissolved our hearts into tears, 
and see if we can thus get them to run one into 
another ? O that it might be, what sorrow soever 
it costs us ! 

We read (Judges ii, 1-5) that the Lord sent 
an angel from Gilgal to the men of Israel, who 
told them how graciously he had dealt with 
them ; yet they had, contrary to the command of 
God, made a league with the inhabitants of the 
land, for which the Lord threatened they should 
be as thorns in their sides. When the angel 



90 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

spake these words to the children of Israel, the 
people lift up their voice and wept. And they 
called the name of that place, Bochim, a place 
of tears. Their sin was too much joining, join- 
ing in league where God would not have them : 
those whom they joined with, God told them 
should be thorns in their sides. Upon this they 
wept, and that so sore that the place received 
its name from their weeping. But O that the 
Lord would send his angel, yea, his Spirit, to us, 
to convince us of our evil, that we to this day 
have not joined in sure league one with another ; 
but are thorns in the sides of one another ; and 
that after so many mercies : yea, that we are 
so false one to another, though the Lord hath 
never broke covenant with us, which was the 
heart-breaking argument the angel used, ver. 1. 
Yea, the Lord hath done abundantly for us be- 
yond our hopes, desires, and thoughts ; and that 
after all this there should be nothing but breach- 
es and divisions among us ; that we should be 
not only thorns, but spears and swords, in one 
another's sides, piercing to one another's heart ! 
Are we the children of Israel ? Let our hearts 
then break, and melt, and mourn, and bleed, 
and resolve that nothing shall comfort them, 
but peace with our God, and peace one with 
another. 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 91 

That one text, 1 Thessalonians iv, 9, were 
enough alone to pierce our hearts through -and 
through : " As touching brotherly love, ye need 
not that I write unto you/' saith the apostle; "for 
ye yourselves are taught of God to love one an- 
other." O Lord, what, are we in these days 
such kind of Christians as those were ? O that 
it were so with us, that we had no need to be 
wrote to, to be preached to, concerning this. 
Does it appear by our carriage one toward 
another that we are taught of God to love one 
another? But that God may teach us this day, 
attend to what shall be said to you in his name, 
which I shall cast into joining p?*inciples, con- 
sideratiojis, and directions. 

I shall not need to be long in these : for take 
away dividing principles, dividing distempers, 
dividing practices, and be thoroughly convinced 
of the evil of divisions, and one would think our 
hearts should of themselves run into one an- 
other. But that I may not seem to leave our 
wounds open, so that air should get into them ; 
but endeavour the closing of them, and so the 
healing ; I shall speak something to these heads. 



92 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

1.— Joining principles. 

THE FIRST JOINING PRINCIPLE. 

In the midst of all differences of 'judgment, and weak- 
nesses of the saints, it is not impossible but that they 
may live in peace and love together. 

If, notwithstanding the differences from God's 
mind, and many weaknesses, there may be peace 
and love between God and his saints : then sure- 
ly, notwithstanding these things, the saints may 
be at love and peace among themselves. Let 
this be laid for a ground, and let our hearts be 
much possessed with it; we shall find it very 
helpful to our closing. Away with that vain 
conceit which hath been the great disturber of 
churches in all ages. If men differ in their judg- 
ment and practice in matters of religion, though 
it be in things that are but the weakness of god- 
ly men, yet there must needs be heart-burning 
and division. Let all peaceable men deny this 
consequence : let us not say, it will be so ; and 
that our words may be made good, afterward 
indeed make it so. Certainly the connexion of 
them, if there be any, is rather from the cor- 
ruption of our hearts, than from the nature of 
the things. 

" There hath been much ado to get us to agree. 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 93 

We laboured to get our opinions into one, but 
they will not come together." It may be in our 
endeavours for agreement we have begun at the 
wrong end. Let us try what we can do at the 
other end : it may be we shall have better suc- 
cess there. Let us labour to join our hearts, 
to engage our affections one to another. If we 
cannot be of one mind that we may agree, let 
us agree that we may be of one mind. 

THE SECOND JOINING PRINCIPLE. 

That shall never be got by strife that may be had by 

love and peace. 
We would all fain have our wills. Now that 
which lies uppermost upon many men's heart's ; 
that which is the first thing they do, if their wills 
be crossed, is presently to strive and contend: 
but this should be the last thing, after all other 
means are tried ; and should never be made use 
of but in case of pure necessity. We should 
first think, Is there any way in the world where- 
by it is possible we may have our desires satis- 
fied with peace ? Let us try this, and another 
way, a third, a fourth, yea, a hundred ways, 
if they lie between us and the way of strife, be- 
fore we come to meddle with that. 

Among those means, he directs for union 

when St. Paul speaks of love : u I will show 

7 



94 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

you/' says he, " a more excellent way ;" a way 
of the highest excellency, beyond any expression. 
The way of love, of engaging hearts one to 
another, is the only way to bring persons into 
unity of judgment ; yea, the only way, when all 
is done, for men to have their wills. I may 
give you this or the other rule, to bring you to 
think and do the same thing ; but that which 
hath an excellency in it with an hyperbole, is 
the way of love. If you could get your minds 
to agree by other ways, certainly you could not 
enjoy it with that sweetness and comfort, as 
you may if you get it this way. Certainly 
there is no man living but hath cause to repent 
him that ever he got that by strife and con- 
tention that he might have got by love and 
peace. What hinders why soft and gentle words 
may not prevail, as well as hard and bitter 
language ? Why may not a loving, winning car- 
riage, do as much as severe, rigid violence ? If 
it may, thou providest ill for thine own peace 
and comfort, to leave this way and betake thy- 
self to the other. Tell me, were it a sign of 
valour in a man to draw his sword at every 
insect that comes near him ? yea, at every fly 
that lights upon him ? Were it not folly and 
madness ? Why, he may by putting forth his 
finger put them off from him. Thy froward, 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 95 

choleric spirit, is ready to draw at everything 
that thou likest not. This is thy folly; for 
thou mayest, with less ado, have what thou hast 
a mind to. If I would put a feather from me, 
I need not strike violently at it. A soft, gentle 
breath, will do it better. Why should a man 
labour and toil till he sweats again, to take up 
a pin ? Have none of you sometimes made a 
great stir in your families about that which, 
when the stir is a little over, you plainly see 
you might have done as well with a word speak- 
ing ? None but a cruel, harsh, sordid-spirited 
man, will say, I had rather men should fear me 
than love me. God prizes most what he hath 
from us by love. 

THE THIRD JOINING PRINCIPLE. 
It is letter to do good than to receive good. 

Active good is better than passive. Only God 
himself, his angels, and saints, do good ; but all 
creatures can receive good. This principle 
would quickly join us ; for if this were in men's 
hearts, they would study to do all the good they 
could to one another, and to gain upon one 
another's hearts ; and the more good we do to 
any, the more will our hearts be inclinable to 
love them. The very communication of good- 
ness, if it be out of a good spirit, carries the 



96 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

heart along with it to the subject this good is 
communicated to. The more good God doth to 
any, the more he loves them. So it is with us 
in our proportion. If you take a poor child 
from the dunghill, or out of the alms-house, and 
make him your heir, you do not only this good 
to him because you love him, but you love more 
because you look upon him as an object of your 
goodness — as one raised by you. 

THE FOURTH JOINING PRINCIPLE. 

The good of other men is my good as ivell as theirs. 

We are all of one body. Whatever good 
others have, it is the good of the body. It 
makes them some way able to do that good 
that we should have done, or at least that we 
should desire to have done. 

Community in the church is more. 1 Cor. iii, 
22 : " Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or 
the world, or life, or death, or things present, 
or things to come, all are yours ; you are 
Christ's, and Christ is God's." If you be godly, 
you have an interest in all the eminently godly 
men in the world : in all their gifts, graces, and 
in all they have or do. All that is in the world, 
that hath any good in it, is yours ; yea, what is 
evil shall be serviceable to you for good. This 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 97 

is brought by the apostle to quiet the jarrings 
and contentions that were among the Corin- 
thians. One would be for Paul, another for 
Apollos. Says the apostle, What need this con- 
tention who you are for, and who another is 
for? they are all yours. All the excellency 
there is in them is the good of every one of you. 
A special reason why men contend so much is, 
they think the good that other men have is 
their evil ; therefore they must either get it to 
themselves, or darken it in those that have it. 
But such men, acted by such a principle, are 
poor, low-spirited men. A man of a raised, 
enlarged spirit, opens his heart that it may be 
filled with that infinite good in which there is all 
good. Now if it be that good my soul closeth 
with, and is satisfied in, then whatever hath any 
goodness in it, be it where it will, it flows from 
this infinite ocean of good my soul is launched 
into, and some way or other flows into this 
again. Though, through men's corruptions, 
there may be windings and turnings in the 
course of it, yet hither it comes at last : and, 
therefore, it is mine as really and truly as any 
I have in mine own hand. My soul then shall 
rejoice in all the good I see my brethren have, 
and in all they do. I will bless God for it, 
and seek the furtherance of it what I can. 



98 CAUSES, EVILS, CUBES, OF 

Surely this man must needs be a man of peace 
and love. 

THE FIFTH JOINING PRINCIPLE. 

My good is more in the public than in myself. 

It is because we have such private spirits, that 
there are such contentions among us. Were 
we more public-spirited, our contentions would 
vanish. When I read of what public spirits 
many of the heathens were, I am ashamed to 
look upon many Christians. Paulus ^Emilius, 
hearing of the death of his children, spake with 
an undaunted courage thus : " That the gods 
had heard his prayer, which was, that calamities 
should rather befall his family than the common- 
wealth." The publicness of his spirit made it 
very sweet and lovely. The story says of him, 
he entreated them gently and graciously whom 
he had subdued, setting forward their causes, 
even as if they had been his confederates, very 
friends, and near kinsmen. Public-spirited 
men are men of sweet and peaceable spirits. 

THE SIXTH JOINING PRINCIPLE. 

What I would have others do to me, that will I 
endeavour to do to them. 

Would not I have others bear with me? I 
then will bear with them. I would have others 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 99 

do offices of kindness to me ; I will then do 
offices of kindness to them. I would have the 
carriage of others lovely, and amiable to me ; 
mine shall be so to them. I would have others 
live peaceably with me ; I will do so with them. 
This rule of doing to others as I would be done 
to, is a law of justice ; such justice as keeps the 
peace. 

Chrysostom, in his thirteenth sermon to the 
people of Antioch, makes use of this principle. 
Thus after Christ had spoken of many blessed- 
nesses, says he, " Those things you would have 
others to do to you, do you to them. As if he 
should say, c There needs not many words ; let 
thine own will be thy law. Would you receive 
benefits ? bestow benefits then. Would you have 
mercy? be merciful then. Would you be loved ? 
then love. Be you the judge yourself, be you 
the lawgiver of your own life. That which 
you hate, do not to another. Cannot you en- 
dure reproach? do not you reproach others. 
Cannot you endure to have others envy you? 
do not you envy others. Cannot you endure 
to be deceived ? do not you deceive others.' " 



100 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

THE SEVENTH JOINING PRINCIPLE. 

It is as great an honour to have my will by yielding, as 
by overcoming. 

Many men in their anger will say, I will be 
even with him, I will tell you a way how you 
may be above him : forgive him. By yielding, 
pardoning, putting up the wrong, you show you 
have power over yourself, and this is a greater 
thing than to have power over another. Numb, 
xiv, 17 : "Now, I beseech thee, let the power 
of my Lord be great." " Pardon, I beseech thee, 
the iniquity of this people." Verse 19. By this 
thou may est honourably prevail with thy bro- 
ther. Hereby shalt thou heap coals of fire upon 
his head. 

If a man offend me merely through weak- 
ness, this is his affliction. In this he is neither 
an enemy to himself nor me. He mourns for 
it, and I will pity him in his mourning. He is 
more troubled for what he hath done, than I 
have cause to be for what I have suffered. If 
he offend willingly and purposely, he is his 
own enemy more than mine. When Latimer 
was cozened in buying a commodity, his friends 
telling him how he was cheated of his money, 
he fell to mourning for him that had cheated 
him. " He hath the worst of it," said he. If 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 101 

my heart rise against a man in this, and I seek 
to oppose him in his way, it may very well be 
interpreted to be out of love to him; for my 
heart rises against his enemy. I oppose his 
enemy, even himself ; but an enemy to himself 
more than to me. He hath hurt me a little, but 
himself more. I am troubled a little for the 
wrong I suffer, but more for the evil he hath 
done. If his ways be enmity to God, I will 
oppose him, because I love God, and no further 
than wherein I may manifest my love to God, 
rather than hatred of him. When Servetus 
condemned Zuinglius for his harshness, he 
answered, " In other things I will be mild, but 
not so in blasphemies against God." Let us 
keep our enmity within these bounds, and the 
peace of God will not be broke. 

If, when others wrong you, you care not what 
you do to right yourself, this is your folly and 
madness. Such a one hurt me, and I will there- 
fore mischief myself : he hath pricked me with 
a pin, and I will therefore in anger run my 
knife into my side. If in all we suffer, we be 
sure to keep from righting ourselves by any 
ways of sin, there will not be much peace 
broke. Such a one is thine enemy ; and wilt 
thou of one enemy make two ? Wilt thou also 
be an enemy to thyself? Yea, a greater enemy 



102 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

than he or any man living can be to thee ? For 
all the men in the world cannot make thee sin, 
except thou wilt thyself. 

A father hath not so much power over his 
child, as to provoke him. Col. iii, 21 : "Fathers, 
provoke not your children to wrath." Surely 
if a man hath not this power over his child, he 
hath it not over his friend, his neighbour, 
much less his superior. Yet how many take 
delight in this, " Such a thing I know will anger 
him, and he shall be sure to have it !" O wicked 
heart ! dost thou see that this will be a tempta- 
tion to thy brother, and wilt thou lay it before 
him? Dost thou not pray for thyself and for 
him, " Lord, lead us not into temptation ?" "We 
should account it the greatest evil to us of all 
the evil of afflictions, to be any occasion of sin 
to our brother ; but what an evil should this be 
to us, to provoke our brother to sin ? If we will 
needs be provoking, then let the apostle's ex- 
hortation prevail with us, Heb. x, 24 : " Let 
us consider one another to provoke unto love 
and good works." Let us not consider one an- 
other in a way of curiosity and emulation, to 
envy, or find fault with one another, from whence 
frowardness, pride, hatred, dissentions, factions, 
may arise, saith Hyperius upon the place ; but 
consider one another, so as we may further the 



HEART AND CHUftCH DIVISIONS. 103 

good of one another, so as to make one another 
quick and active in that which is good. 

But how will this join us one to another ? 

A?zsw. Very much ; both as it holds forth the 
goodness of peace with all men, and as it car- 
ries the heart strongly to the making and 
keeping peace with God and a man's own con- 
science. This peace with God and a man's 
own conscience will so sweeten the heart, that 
it cannot but be sweet toward every one. A 
man who hath satisfaction enough within, can 
easily bear affliction and troubles that come 
without. When Saul had made great breaches 
between God and his soul, and in his own con- 
science, then he grew to be of a very froward 
spirit toward every man. Before his apostacy 
he was of a very meek and quiet spirit, but 
this soured his spirit, and made it grow harsh, 
rugged, and cruel. This is the cause of the 
frowardness of many men and women in their 
families, and with their neighbours ; there are 
secret breaches between God and their own 
consciences. 

2 — Considerations. 

God is love. There is anger and hatred in 
God as well as love : but God is never said to 
be anger or hatred ; no, not justice itself: but 



104 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES OF 

he loves that expression of himself to the chil- 
dren of men, God is love. If God intended 
that all things among men, either in church or 
commonwealth, should be carried with strictness 
of justice, he would rather have governed his 
church and the world by angels — who have right 
apprehensions of justice, who are themselves 
perfect, altogether free from those evils that 
are to be punished — than by men, whose appre- 
hensions of justice are exceeding weak, uncon- 
stant, partial, as often false as true, and have 
much of that in themselves, that they judge in 
others. 

"When our yielding is through ignorance, 
cowardice, base fear, and not from a principle 
of wisdom and understanding ; it is not so much 
out of true love to peace, as a foolish, ignorant, 
sottish, sordid spirit, of our own: whereas had 
we had a spirit of wisdom and courage, we 
might have peace upon more honourable terms. 
Indeed, many think every kind of yielding 
baseness ; but they are, for the most part, such 
as are not put to any great trial themselves. 
But when our conscience tells us, that what we 
do is what the rule allows us, it is not because 
we would avoid trouble, but we find, through 
God's grace, our hearts in some measure pre- 
pared for suffering, if God were pleased to call 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 105 

us to it, in anything wherein he may have glory, 
and the public may be benefited ; but because, 
all things duly considered, we see that God in 
such a way shall have more glory, and our bre- 
thren generally more good. Therefore, what- 
ever becomes of our particular satisfaction in 
regard of esteem, or otherwise, we are willing 
to yield ; because in this we find our hearts as 
much closing with God, enjoying communion 
with him in all holiness and godly fear ; and in 
other things that go as near to us, we are able 
to deny ourselves as much as ever. In this 
we may have comfort, that it is not baseness 
that makes us yield, but rather the grace of God 
enabling us to rule over our own spirits. The 
peace that we thus purchase with the suffering 
much in our names, and the loss of many com- 
forts, does not cost us too dear. 

God hath joined us together as we are men. 
We are not dogs, not wolves. Then let us 
not be so to one another. Acts vii, 26, Moses 
speaks thus to those who strove one with an- 
other : " Sirs, ye are brethren ; why do you 
wrong one another ?" There is a considera- 
tion in this, that ye are men. If there were no 
more, ye should not strive one with another : 
but much more considering ye are brethren. If 
we be men, let us be humane. What is the 



106 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

meaning of humanity, but courteousness, gentle- 
ness, and pleasantness, in our carriage one to 
another ? But still the consideration grows 
higher, as we are the same countrymen, of old 
acquaintance, in the same employment, of the 
same family and kindred ; but, above all, joined 
in such a blessed root, the fountain of all love 
and peace. Ephes. iv, 4, presents this consi- 
deration most fully to us. The reason the 
apostle gives why we must keep the unity of 
the Spirit in the bond of peace, is, because 
" there is one body, and one Spirit ; ye are 
called in one hope ; one Lord, pne faith, one 
baptism, one God and Father of all." Here 
you have seven ones together in two or three 
lines. It is very much that the Spirit of 
God should join so close together seven ones. 
Surely it is to be a strong argument for us to 
unity. 

1. One body : the meanest member is in the 
body. Is it comely for the body of Christ to 
be rent and torn? Any reference to Christ 
might persuade unity ; but union with Christ 
as the members with the body, what heart can 
stand against the strength of this ? What can 
cause one member to tear and rend another, but 
madness ? 

2. One spirit: 1 Cor. xii, 11, "that one and 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 107 

the self-same spirit." He does not only say, 
the same spirit, but the self-same spirit ; and, as 
if that was not enough, he adds one to the self- 
same ; and that yet not enough, he says that 
one. The repeating the article hath a great 
elegancy in it. And is not this one spirit of 
love and meekness ? What does a froward, con- 
tentious spirit, do in thee, who professest thyself 
to be a Christian? What, says Cyprian, does 
the fierceness of wolves, the madness of dogs, 
the deadly poison of serpents, the bloody rage 
of beasts, in a Christian's breast ? 

3. Called in one hope, are you not heirs, 
joint heirs, of the same kingdom ? And do you 
contend as if one belonged to the kingdom of 
light, and the other to the kingdom of darkness ? 

4. One Lord. You serve the same Lord and 
Master. Is it for the credit of a master, that 
his servants are always wrangling and fighting 
one with another ? Is it not a tedious thing in a 
family that the servants can never agree ? Mark 
how ill the Lord takes this. Matt, xxiv, 49-51. 
That evil servant who begins to smite his fel- 
low-servants, provokes his Lord against him, 
so as to come upon him with such severity as 
to cut him asunder, and to appoint his portion 
with the hypocrites ; or, as it is in the Greek, 
he will divide him in two. He by his smiting 



108 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

his fellow-servants makes divisions, but his Lord 
will divide him. It may be he pretends that 
his fellow-servants do not do their duty as they 
ought, as if he were more careful of the honour 
of his Lord than others. But in the mean while 
he inveighs against others, smiting them with 
the tongue, and otherwise, as he is able. He 
sits at full tables, eats and drinks of the best, 
with such as are carnal and sensual. But they 
are great men; to have their countenance is 
brave. This is extremely suitable to a carnal 
heart, who yet keeps up a profession of religion, 
and hath some form of godliness. He is afraid 
to lose his fleshly contentment, therefore he 
smites those who stand in his way. Thus divi- 
sions and troubles are made in God's family. 
The Lord, the Master of it, will reward accord- 
ingly. He will divide such, by cutting them 
asunder, and appointing their portion with the 
hypocrites. 

5. One faith. What though we agree not 
together in some things of lesser moment, yet 
we agree in one faith. Why should we not 
then keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of 
peace? The agreement in the faith one would 
think should swallow up all the disagreements. 
We should rather bless God for keeping men 
sound in the faith, than contend with them for 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 109 

lesser mistakes. When the Pharisees (Acts 
xxiii, 9) understood that Paul agreed with them 
in that great doctrine of the resurrection, they 
presently overlooked his other differences, say- 
ing, " We find no evil in this man." Our bre- 
thren agree with us in more fundamentals than 
this, and yet we can find evil in them, and ag- 
gravate their evil beyond what it is, and improve 
it all we can against them. This is worse than 
Pharisaical. 

Mr. Calvin, writing to our countrymen at 
Frankford, (who fled for their lives in witness 
to the truth, yet miserably jarring and contend- 
ing one against another there, to the scandal of 
all the churches of God in those parts) begins 
his epistle thus: "This doth grievously torment: 
it is extremely absurd that dissensions should 
arise among brethren, exiles, fled from their 
country for the same faith, and for that cause 
which alone in this your scattering, ought to be 
to you as a holy band, to keep you fast bound 
together." Their contentions were about church 
worship. 

6. One baptism. We are baptized into Christ's 
death. And is not that to show that we should be 
dead to all those things in the world that cause 
strife and contention among men ? Our baptism 

is our badge, our livery. It furthers somewhat 

8 



110 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OP 

the unity of servants that they wear all one . 
livery. 

7. One God. Though there be three persons 
in the divine nature, and every person is God, 
yet there is but one God. Here is a union 
infinitely beyond all unions that any creature 
can be capable of. The mystery of this union 
is revealed to us, to make us in love with union. 
Our interest in this one God is such a conjunc- 
tion, as nothing can be more. 

Joseph's brethren (Gen. 1, 17) looked upon 
this as having very great power in it to make 
up all breaches, to heal old grudges. After their 
father was dead, their consciences misgave them 
for what they had done to Joseph. They were 
afraid o]d matters would break forth, and that 
Joseph would turn their enemy. Now how do 
they seek to unite Joseph's heart to them ? " We 
pray thee," say they, "forgive the trespass of 
the servants of the God of thy father." And 
the text says, "Joseph wept when they spake 
unto him." O this was a heart-breaking speech 
to Joseph ! The servants of the God of my fa- 
ther ! Shall my heart ever be estranged from the 
servants of the God of my father? The Lord 
forbid ! This offence indeed was great ; but their 
God is my God, and he was my father's God ! 
This argument had more in it to draw Joseph's 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. Ill 

heart to them, than if they had said we are your 
brethren, we come from the loins you did. True 
that is something, but the servants of the God 
of thy father is much more. Let us look upon 
all the godly, though they have many weaknesses, 
and have not carried themselves toward us as 
they ought ; yet they are the servants, yea, the 
children of our God, and of our father's God. 
Let this draw our hearts to them. If they be 
one with us in their interest in one God, let 
them be one with us in heart affection, to love, 
delight, and rejoice in communion with them. 
One God and Father. Mai. ii, 10 ; Job xxxi, 15. 
Is it seemly that one man's children should be 
always contending, quarrelling and villifying one 
another ? Do you think this is pleasing to your 
Father, who is above all and through all ? You 
have enough in your Father to satisfy your souls 
for ever. Whatever you want other ways, he 
hath put honour enough upon you that he is 
your Father. Why will ye contend and quar- 
rel about trifles ? " He worketh in all, and is 
in all." This scripture is one of the most fa- 
mous for the union of the saints in one, that we 
have in all the book of God. You will say, If 
we could see God in such, if we could see grace 
and holiness in them, our hearts would unite ; 
but we see not these. Answer. Take heed thou 



112 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

dost not reject any from being thy brother, whom 
Jesus Christ at the great day will own for his, 
and God the Father will call his child. Many 
men are of such spirits, they love to be altoge- 
ther busied about their brethren's differences. 
It is upon these their tongues and pens run ; not 
to heal, but widen them. You shall not hear 
them speak about their agreements ; their 
strength is not bent to strengthen them. Or, if 
at any time they do take notice of their union, 
it is to make them more odious : or to strengthen 
themselves in what they differ from them. They 
desire to get in men, and to get from them, only 
to serve their own turns. This is an evil spirit. 
Let us consider men's tempers, spirits, tempt- 
ations, age, gifts. There must be a due con- 
sideration of all these, and we must indulge 
something to them all. This would allay much 
strife, as we read Num. xxxi, 21. We must 
deal with every man according to his temper. 
Some men are by their complexions of a more 
harsh and rugged temper than others. Con- 
sider what is the best way of dealing with such. 
In the main they are faithful and useful, will 
join with and spend their lives for you. If the 
harshness of their natures cause excrescences, 
unpleasing carriages; consider their tempers. 
Though no evil in them is to be justified, yet 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 113 

deal tenderly with them, indulge them what law- 
fully you may. 

Some men's spirits, though upright to God and 
you, have a fervour in them that is not qualified 
with that degree of wisdom, meekness, and hu- 
mility, as they ought. Do not presently take 
those advantages against them, which they may 
perhaps give you. Do not fly upon them as if 
those unjustifiable expressions that drop from 
them, come from a malignant spirit. You know 
the men, and the manner of their communication. 
Then pass by weaknesses. 

Some men's temptations are very strong. It 
may be their hearts are pressed with disappoint- 
ments ; they may be pierced with the wants of 
many comforts you enjoy; they have family 
and personal temptations that you are freed 
from: you do not know what you might do 
under the like temptations. 

Bless God that you are delivered from them. 
Do not add to your brethren's affliction by 
taking advantage against them ; but, according 
to the rule of the apostle, Gal. vi, 1, consider, 
some all their days have lived in wicked fami- 
lies, disorderly communities, and never were 
acquainted with the society of the saints, and 
that way of godliness that hath the most strict- 
ness and power in it. 



114 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

You must not deal with them the same way 
you would deal with others, who have a godly 
education, and early and long acquaintance with 
the most strict and powerful ways of godliness, 
but now oppose them. Consider men's years. 
Old age looks for respect, and justly too ; espe- 
cially such as have gone through the brunt, 
and suffered much for your good. Though 
some infirmities should break forth, that are 
incident to old age, we must cover and pass by 
what we can, not forgetting that respect is due 
to the hoary head found in the way of righte- 
ousness. Consider men's gifts, that may be they 
are not able to understand what you do. Thank 
God for your strength, but be not angry with 
your brother because he is weaker. 

What we get by contention will never quit 
cost. If thou hast so much command of thy 
spirit, canst so far overcome thy passions, as to 
get time in cool blood to cast up thy accounts 
truly, what good thou hast done, or what thou 
hast got by such contentions ; and on the other 
side, cast up what hurt thou hast done, what sin 
hath been committed by thee and thy party, what 
evil hath got into thy spirit ; I fear you will have 
little cause to boast of, or rejoice in, your gains. 

To be freed from that expense that comes in 
by strife, is not a little gain, says Ambrose. In 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 115 

strife you will find there is a very great ex- 
pense of time, gifts, and learning. Many men, 
with the good gifts God hath given them, 
might have proved shining lights in the church ; 
but, by reason of their contentious spirits, prove 
no other than smoking firebrands. It may be, 
by all the stir you keep, you will never get your 
end ; if you do, it will not quit cost ; the charge 
you have b,een at, comes to more than it is 
worth. God deliver me from having my end 
at such a dear rate ! 

The strongest have need of the weakest ; 
therefore, let not the hand say it hath no need 
of the foot, nor the eye that it hath no need of 
the hand. God hath so tempered the body, 
that every member hath need of every mem- 
ber. Little nails may be useful where great 
wedges can do no good : little chips may help 
to set great logs on fire. 

Consider, when men provoke us we are ready 
to fly upon them, looking no further than the 
men with whom we are displeased. But take 
another sight, and perhaps you may see the 
devil on the other side the hedge, who hath 
been the chief agent in this business. He pre- 
pares his net, Augustine saith, to catch men 
in : he raises up contentions, and causes much 
trouble to be in churches and among brethren. 



116 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

You think all the evil is in the trouble of your 
contentions. O no ; the devil is behind : he 
intends to bring some of you into some great 
sin by these things. He hath set his net for 
you. When you are troubled and vexed by 
such contentions, the devil sees you fit for a 
temptation. Now I hope, says he, to get 
him to do such things, which otherwise I could 
never have got him to. O that we had hearts, 
when we find contention stirring, to consider, 
but is there not a temptation and ruin in them ? 
Consider how the heart of God is set upon 
making peace with us. He was in Christ re- 
conciling the world to himself. This work hath 
taken up the thoughts, council, and heart of 
God, above anything that he ever did. This is 
the chief master-piece of all his works. There 
is more of the glory of God in this than in all 
that he hath done. This is, and shall be, the 
grand subject of admiration for saints and an- 
gels ; the matter of their praises to all eternity. 
God was resolved to have it whatever it cost 
him, though the price were more than ten thou- 
sand worlds were worth. It was no less than 
the blood of the Son of God, the second per- 
son in the Trinity, God blessed for evermore. 
Col. i, 14. What God hath done for peace )} 
with us, calls aloud to us to prize peace one 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 117 

with another. It is the apostle's sentiments. 
1 John iii, 16. If it cost Christ his life to 
make our peace with God, we should be willing 
to do anything we are able, even to the hazard 
of our lives, to make peace among the saints. 
Christ laid down his life for this peace. Also 
(Eph. ii, 14) Christ reconciles both unto God. 
But how ? It is in one body. Lay this con- 
sideration near and warm to your hearts, and 
it will comfort you, and so preserve and increase 
peaceable dispositions in you toward one another. 

Remember, God hath called us to peace. 
That case upon which the apostle mentions our 
calling to peace, is as difficult a case to preserve 
peace in, as any can fall out in one's life. It 
was that of being unequally yoked, one a be- 
liever, and the other an infidel ; yet being man 
and wife, he determines that the believer must 
be content to live with the unbeliever, as it 
becomes a wife or husband, except he or she 
of themselves will depart ; but they should give 
them no occasion of departing, but by their holy 
conversation seek to convert them. This was 
counted a hard task ; but it must be, saith the 
apostle, and grounds it upon this, God hath 
called us to peace. 

There is another case, almost as difficult as 
the former, where patience and quietness of 



118 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

spirit are put to trial ; that is, when a servant 
meets with a harsh, rugged, cruel master, that 
treats him wrongfully. One would think this 
might be allowed to put the spirit into a rage. 
No, saith the apostle ; such must be the com- 
mand you must have over your spirits, that 
you must patiently bear this ; and he grounds 
it upon, for hereunto are ye called. 1 Pet. ii, 
21, 22. "But though husbands and wives should 
live at peace ; though they suffer one from an- 
other ; though servants should put up with 
wrongs from their masters : yet it follows not 
that the like patience should be required in us 
when we are wronged by our equals, by those 
to whom we have no such band of relation to 
tie us." Yes, the argument is strong in this 
case also. 1 Pet. iii, 8, 9. 

Consider the presence of God and of Christ. 
Our God, Father, Master, and Saviour, stands 
by, looking on us. It is a most excellent pas- 
sage that I find in an epistle of Luther to the 
ministers of Nuringburg. There were great 
divisions among them, he wrote to pacify their 
spirits one toward another. " Suppose," says 
he, " you saw Jesus Christ standing before you, 
and by his very eyes speaking thus unto your 
hearts, What do you, O my dear children, whom 
I have redeemed with my blood, begotten again 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 119 

by my Spirit, to that end that you might love 
one another ; know that this is the mark of my 
disciples. Leave this business, cast it wholly 
upon me. I will look to it, there is no danger 
that the church should suffer by this, though it 
should be stilled ; yea, though it should die : 
but there is a great deal of danger if you dis- 
sent among yourselves, if you bite one another. 
Do not thus sadden my Spirit, do not spoil the 
angels of their joys in heaven ; am not I more 
to you than all matters between you ? than all 
your afflictions and all your offences? "What, 
can any words of a brother, any unjust trouble, 
penetrate your hearts, stick so fast in you as 
my wounds, as my blood, as all that I am to 
you — your Saviour Jesus Christ ?" O that we 
had such real apprehensions of Christ looking 
upon, and speaking unto us ! 

Let every man consider his own weaknesses. 
You are now ready to take offence from others, 
and within awhile you are as likely to be as 
offensive to others. There will then be as 
much need that they should bear with you, as 
now there is that you should bear with them. 
A common law of those who intend to live at 
peace one with another, is, we desire pardon, 
and we give pardon. 

Now let us consider our mortality. It is but 



120 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

a little time we have to live. Shall the greater 
part of it, nay, why should any part of it, be 
spent in contentions and quarrels? Sprinkle 
upon your hearts the meditations of death, that 
in a little while this flesh of yours will be turned 
to dust ; let this quiet you. 

Consider what account we can give to Jesus 
Christ, of all our divisions, in the day of 
judgment. 

When Christ shall come, will you stand be- 
fore him with scratched faces, with black and 
blue eyes ? 1 Thess. iii, 12, 13. It will be a sad 
thing to be found in our divisions at the coming 
of Jesus Christ! Matt, xxiv, 50, the coming 
of Christ is mentioned as a terror to those who 
shall but begin to smite their fellow-servants. 

We may wrangle and stand out one against 
another in our contentions now, but it will not 
be so easy to answer Jesus Christ, as it is to 
answer one to another. In the name of Jesus 
Christ I now speak unto you ; yea, as from 
him, I beseech and charge you, let no reason 
move you to contend with, dissent, or separate 
from, your brethren, but that which you are 
persuaded in your consciences, and that after 
deep and serious examination, will hold out 
before, and will be approved by, Jesus Christ 
at his coming. 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 121 

3— EDimtions. 

DIRECTION I. 

First. Observe this general direction. See 
that you forget not the great difference between 
novices and experienced Christians : between 
the babes and those of full age : between the 
weak and the strong in grace. Level them not 
in your estimation. It is not for nothing that 
the Spirit of God in Scripture maketh so great 
a difference between them, as you may read in 
Heb. v, 11-14; vi, 1, 2 ; 1 Tim. iii, 6; 1 John 
ii, 12-14. There are babes, strong men, and 
fathers, among Christians. There are some 
that are dull of hearing, and have need of milk, 
and are unskilful in the word of righteousness, 
and must be taught the principles : and there 
are others who can digest strong meat, who by 
reason of use, have their senses exercised to 
discern both good and evil. It is not for nothing 
that the younger are commanded reverence 
and submission to the elder, and that the pas- 
tors and governors of the church are usually 
called by the name of elders ; because it was 
supposed that the elder sort were more expe- 
rienced and wise ; and, therefore, pastors and 
rulers were to be chosen out of them. And 



122 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

why is it that children must so much honour 
their fathers and mothers, and must be governed 
by them ? It is not merely because generation 
giveth the parents a propriety in their children ; 
for God would not have folly to be the governor 
of wisdom, upon pretence of such propriety : 
but it is also because it must ordinarily be sup- 
posed, that infants are ignorant, and parents 
have understanding, and are fit to be their 
teachers, as having had longer time and helps 
to learn, and more experience to make their 
knowledge clear and firm. If the young and 
unexperienced were ordinarily as wise as the 
aged or mature, why are not children made 
governors of their parents, or at least com- 
manded to instruct and teach them, as ordi- 
narily as parents must do their children ? The 
Lord Jesus himself would be subject to his 
mother and reputed father in his childhood. 
Luke ii, 51. Can there be a livelier convic- 
tion of the arrogance of those novices, who 
proudly slight the judgments of their elders, 
as presuming, groundlessly, that they are wiser 
than they ? Yea, Christ would not enter upon 
his public ministry or office, till he was about 
thirty years of age. Luke iii, 23. He is blind 
that perceiveth not, in this example, a most 
notorious condemnation of the pride of those 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 123 

that hasten to be teachers of others before they 
have had time or means to learn ; and that de- 
ride or vilify the judgments of the aged, who 
differ from their conceits, before they understand 
the things in which they are so confident. It 
was thought a good answer in John ix, 21 : 
a He is of age ; ask him." But they that are 
under age now think their words to be the 
wisest, because they are the boldest and fiercest. 
The old were wont to bless the young, and now 
the young deride the old. It is the character 
of a turbulent people, (Deut. xxviii, 50,) that 
they regard not the person of the aged ; that is, 
they reverence not their age. How many ve- 
hement commands are there in Solomon's pro- 
verbs to the younger sort, to hearken to the 
counsel of their parents. The contrary was 
the ruin of Eli's sons, and the shame of Samuel's. 
1 Sam. viii, 1, 5. Was Eehoboam unwise in 
forsaking the counsel of the aged, and heark- 
ening to the young and rash ? and are those 
people wise that, in the mysteries of salvation, 
will prefer the vehement passions of a novice 
before the well-settled judgment of the expe- 
rienced, aged ministers ? I know that the old 
are too often ignorant, and that wisdom doth 
not always increase with our ages ; but I know 
withal that children are never fit to be the 



124 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

rulers of the church ; and that old men may be 
foolish, but young men are never wise enough 
for so high a work. "We are not now consider- 
ing what may fall out rarely as a wonder, but 
what is ordinarily to be expected. Most of the 
church's confusions and divisions have been 
caused by the younger sort of Christians, who 
are in the heat of their zeal, and the infancy 
of understanding; who have affection enough 
to make them drive on, but have not judgment 
enough to know the way. None are so fierce 
and rash in condemning the things and persons 
which they understand not, and in raising cla- 
mours against all that are wiser and soberer 
than they. If they once take a thing to be a 
sin, which is no sin, or a duty which is no duty, 
there is no person, no minister, no magistrate, 
who hath age, or wisdom, or piety enough, to 
save them from the injuries of juvenile temerity, 
if they do not think and speak, and do according 
to their green and raw conceits. Remember, 
therefore, to be always sensible of the great 
disadvantages of youth, and to preserve that 
reverence for experienced age, which God in 
nature as well as in Scripture hath made their 
due. If time and labour were not necessary to 
maturity of knowledge, why do you not trust 
another with your health, as well as an expe- 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 125 

rienced physician ; and with your estates, as 
well as a studied lawyer ? And why do not 
seamen trust any other to govern the ship, as 
well as an experienced pilot ? Do you not see 
that all men ordinarily are best at that which, 
by long study, they have made their profession ? 
I know those that I have now to do with, will 
say, that " divinity is not learned by labour 
and men's teaching, as other sciences and arts 
are ; but by the teaching of the Spirit of God ; 
and, therefore, the youngest may have as much 
of it as the eldest. 

Answ. There is some truth and some false- 
hood, and much confusion, in this objection. It 
is true that the saving knowledge of divinity 
must be taught by the Spirit of God : and it is 
false that labour and human teaching are not 
the means which must be used by them who 
will have the teaching of the Spirit. 

1. Consider, I pray, why else it is, God hath 
so multiplied commands to dig for it as for 
silver, and search for it as a hidden treasure; 
to cry for knowledge, and lift up our voice for 
understanding ; to wait at the posts of wisdom's 
doors ; to search the Scriptures, and meditate 
on them day and night. Is not this such study 
and labour as men use to get understanding in 
other professions? Are not these the plain 

9 



126 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OP 

commands of God ? And are they not then de- 
ceivers who contradict them ? 

2. Is it not blaspheming of God's Spirit to 
make it the patron of men's sloth and idleness, 
under pretence of magnifying grace., when so 
many texts command diligence, and slothful- 
ness is so great a sin ? And none are so forward 
to preach as these same men that cry down 
men's teaching. 

3. Why hath God settled a teaching office 
in his church, and commanded all to attend, and 
hear and learn, if we are taught by the Spirit 
without man's help ? Why were the apostles 
sent out into all the world ? And why were they 
commanded to teach all nations, and to teach 
the church all that Christ commanded them? 
And why doth he promise to be with them to 
the end of the world ? But that this is the way 
of the Spirit's teaching, to teach those first who 
are our outward teachers, and then to help us 
to understand them. And those are taught of 
God, who are taught by those who are sent of 
God to be their teachers, and have the inward 
concurrence of his grace. Therefore remember 
to give due respect to them who have been 
longer in Christ than you, and to them who 
have longer studied the Scriptures, and to them 
that have had greater helps and experience ; 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 12? 

and do not too easily imagine, that those 
who are below them in all these advantages, 
are yet above them in sound understanding: 
though such a wonder may sometimes come 
to pass. 

DIRECTION II. 

Observe well the secret and subtle workings of 
spiritual pride, and how deep-rooted and dan- 
gerous a sin it is, and what special temptations 
to this odious sin the younger and empty-headed 
Christians have ; that the resistance of them 
may be your daily care. 

Pride is the self-idolizing sin ; the great rebel 
against God ; the chief part of the devil's image ; 
that one sin which breaketh every command- 
ment ; the heart of the old man ; the root and 
parent, and summary, of all other sin ; the anti- 
christian vice which is most directly contrary to 
the life of Christ; the principal object of God's 
hatred and disdain, and the mark of those whom 
he delighteth to tread down ; and the certain 
prognostic of dejection and abasement, either 
by humbling repentance or damnation. It is 
called spiritual pride from the object; when 
men are proud of spiritual excellencies, real or 
supposed. And this is so much worse than 
pride in beauty, apparel, riches, high places, or 



128 CAUSES, EVILS, CUKES, OF 

high birth, as the abuse of great and excellent 
things is worse than the abuse of vanities and 
trifles ; and as things spiritual are in themselves 
more contrary to the nature of pride, and there- 
fore the sin hath the greater enormity. The 
common exercise of this religious or spiritual 
pride is first about knowledge, and secondly about 
our godliness or goodness. 1st. Pride of our 
understandings worketh thus : first, a man that 
was formerly in darkness, is much affected with 
the new-come light, and perceiveth that he 
knoweth much more than he did before ; and 
then groweth to a carnal and corrupt estimation 
of it, valuing it more as nature is pleased with 
it, than as it is sanctified by it : delighting in 
knowledge for itself, more than for the purity, 
love, and heavenliness, which it should effect. 
Then he looketh about him on the ignorant sort 
of people, who know not what he knoweth, and 
seeth how far they are below him ; and he think- 
eth within himself, What a difference hath God 
made between me and them. And because thank- 
fulness is a duty, he observeth not how pride doth 
twist itself with it, and creeps in under the pro- 
tection of its name. And how thankfulness and 
pride have the same expressions, and both of 
them say, "I thank thee, O Father, that thou hast 
hid these things from the wise and prudent, and 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 129 

bast revealed them to babes." "I thank thee, 
God, that I am not as other men are, extor- 
tioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publi- 
can." Luke xviii, 11. And then he is so taken 
up with the things which he knoweth, that he 
perceiveth not what knowledge he yet wanteth. 
And the deep affection which his knowledge 
worketh in him, or the tickling pleasure which 
he hath in knowing, joined with this ignorance 
of his in other things, doth make him over con- 
fident of all his apprehensions, as if everything 
which he imagineth were an absolute certainty : 
and so he wanteth that humble suspicion of his 
own understanding, which a true acquaintance 
with his ignorance would have caused in him. 
And thus he groweth to overvalue all his own 
conceivings, and to undervalue all the opinions 
and reasonings of others which are contrary to 
his own. And thence he proceeds to corrupt 
his religion with such misapprehensions, rejects 
divine institutions, and sanctifies human tradi- 
tions as divine dictates - T and having made him a 
religion of his own, he confidently thinketh that 
it is of God. And next he valueth all men that 
he hath to do with, according as they are nearer 
or farther off from this which he accounteth the 
way of God. He chooseth whom he will join 
with by the test of this religion, which his pride 



130 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

hath chosen. He zealously declaimeth against 
the opposers of this way, as against the adver- 
saries of truth and godliness, and consequently 
of God himself. He prayeth up his opinions, 
and preacheth them up, and contendeth for them; 
and prayeth, and preacheth, and disputeth down, 
all that is against them. He laboureth to 
strengthen the party that is for them, and to 
weaken that which is against them. And thus 
he divideth the kingdom and family of Christ : 
he destroy eth first the love of his brother and 
neighbour in himself, and then laboureth to de- 
stroy it in all others, by speaking against those 
that are not of his mind with contempt and ob- 
loquy, to represent them as an unlovely sort of 
men ; and if the interest of his cause do require 
it, perhaps he will next destroy their persons. 
And yet all this is done in zeal for God, and as 
an acceptable service to him ; and they think all 
are neuters and lukewarm, who prosecute not 
the schism so fervently as they, and fight not 
against love with as much vehemency: yea, 
and in all this they are still confident that they 
love the brethren with a special love, and make 
it the mark that they are Christ's disciples, 
and that they are passed from death to life, be- 
cause they love the persons who are of their 
own opinion and way, and because they 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 131 

love their own image, which is only self-love 
reflected. 

And thus Pride insensibly, while they per- 
ceive it not at all, doth choose their opinions, 
their religions, their parties, and make their 
duties and their sins, and rule their judgments, 
affections, and actions ; which is all but the same 
thing which the Scripture in one word calleth 
heresy. And all that I have said, you may find 
said in other words in the third chapter of James. 
And there are two things which greatly promote 
this sin: the one is conceit that all their ap- 
prehensions are the Spirit's dictates, or the ef- 
fect of its illumination ; and the works and teach- 
ings of the Spirit are not to be contradicted, or 
suspected, but to be honoured. Therefore they 
think it is a resisting of the Spirit, to resist their 
judgment. And they are persuaded that their 
apprehensions are caused by the Spirit, partly 
because they had no such thing while they lived 
in wickedness, but it came in either with their 
change, or shortly after, and therefore they 
think that the same light which showed them 
their sinful state, doth show them also all these 
principles ; and partly because they find them- 
selves as deeply affected with these misappre- 
hensions, as with others which are sound and 
right: therefore they are confident that they 



132 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

come from the same Spirit. And especially when 
these thoughts come in upon the reading of the 
Scripture, or in meditation, or after earnest 
prayer to God to teach them by his Spirit, and 
lead them into the truth, and not to suffer them 
to err ; and when they find they have good ends 
and meanings, and a desire to know the truth ; 
all this persuadeth them that it is the Spirit from 
whom their thoughts proceed, when yet it may 
be no such thing. 

And another much greater, and more common 
cause of this self-conceitedness, is this : all men's 
understandings are naturally imperfect. Our 
knowledge about natural things is small and 
dark, much more about supernatural : the wisest 
must say, We know but in part And the variety 
of men's degrees of knowledge, joined with the 
difference of their education, and advantages, 
and foregoing thoughts, do make as great a 
diversity of understandings, as of complexions ; 
and yet it is very hard to any man to have a 
sufficient diffidence and suspicion of his mis- 
taken mind. For what a man knoweth, he know- 
eth that he knoweth. But no man that erreth, 
doth know that he erreth, for that is a con- 
tradiction. 

And there is a religious pride of goodness, as 
well as of knowledge, which must yet more care- 



HEAKT AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 133 

fully be avoided, as being yet worse than the 
former, as the thing abused is much better. 
And this worketh as secretly and as subtly as 
the former. It may not only consist with many 
complaints, and confessions of sinfulness, weak- 
ness, and unworthiness, but even with doubts 
of sincerity, and so much dejectedness as seem- 
eth to draw near to desperation. It is an ordi- 
nary thing to hear the same persons talking in 
a complaining, doubting, and almost despairing 
manner of speech, and yet to have high expec- 
tations of respect from others, and to be most 
proudly impatient of the least undervaluing or 
neglect. Yea, pride will make an advantage 
to itself of all those humble confessions and com- 
plaints : and it is an old observation, that many 
are proud of their humility. For though it be 
true, as Austin saith, that grace is a thing that 
no man can use amiss ; the meaning is only that 
grace efficiently can do nothing amiss, (for if it 
do amiss, so far it is not grace ;) yet objectly all 
grace may be abused, that is, a man may make 
it the object of his pride, and the occasion of 
many other sins. And this religious pride of 
goodness doth ordinarily work under the pre- 
text of thankfulness to God for his grace, and 
zeal for holiness ; but it may be known by this, 
that it always tendeth to lift us up, and to the 



134 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OP 

diminishing of love to others, and the contempt 
of the weak, and the censuring of our brethren, 
and the divisions and disturbance of the church 
of God. They are lamentable effects which this 
pride produceth in the church, and all societies 
where it cometh. It maketh all men's goodness 
seem little, except our own ; it causeth the peo- 
ple to undervalue their pastors, and turneth com- 
passion of men's weakness into a sour contempt ; 
it setteth a man, in his own conceit, so near to 
God, that he looketh down on other men as 
earthly animals in comparison of himself; it 
maketh new terms of church communion, and 
teacheth men to make narrower the door of the 
church, than God hath made it ; it causeth men 
to deny and villify God's grace, in those that 
answer not their expectations, and to think that 
the church is not worthy of their communion ; 
and to think that none are so fit as they to be 
the reformers of the church and of the world. 
I entreat those who are in danger of this per- 
nicious sin, to think with themselves, 1. What 
a heinous crime and folly it is for one that but 
lately was a child of the devil, and a sink of sin, 
to be proud so quickly of his goodness ; and for 
one that so lately was groaning and weeping 
with a broken heart, for a sinful life, to be already 
puffed up with the conceits of godliness ; and 






HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 135 

for one who daily maketh confession to God of 
a sinful heart and a faulty life, and of great un- 
worthiness, to contradict all this by an over- 
valuing of his own piety. And what an odious 
self-contradiction it is, to make yourself like the 
devil in pride, because you think you are like 
God in holiness ! 

2. Consider that the more you are proud of 
your goodness, the less you have to be proud 
of. If this sin be predominant, it is certain 
that you have no saving grace at all. And 
what an odious thing and miserable case is it, 
to be proud of holiness, when you are unholy ; 
and to be damned both for the want of it, and 
for being proud of it : that a man should be 
proud of that, for want of which he must suffer 
the fire of hell ! But if your pride be not pre- 
dominant, yet it is certain that in what measure 
soever you have this pride, in that measure you 
are destitute of grace ; for true grace and pride 
are as contrary as life and death. 

3. And study well the meaning of all these 
scriptures, (for you shall not say that I misin- 
terpret them to you :) Why was it that Christ 
mentioneth the parable of the Pharisee and the 
publican ? one thanking God that he was not 
so bad as others, and the other thinking himself 
unworthy to look up to heaven. Luke xviii, 10, 



136 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

11, &c. Why did he give us the parable of the 
prodigal, who confessed that he was unworthy 
to be called a son; and of his elder brother, 
who swelled with envy at his entertainment ? 
"Why was it that Christ seemed not strict enough 
to the Pharisees in keeping the sabbath, nor in 
his diet, nor in his company ; but they called 
him a gluttonous person, and a wine-bibber, and 
a friend of publicans and sinners ? Was it not 
because their pride and superstition made them 
think too highly of their own religiousness ; 
and to make sins and duties which God never 
made, and then to condemn the innocent for 
want of this human religiousness? What was 
the sin condemned in Isaiah lxv, 5, which says, 
" Stand by thyself, come not near to me ; for I 
am holier than thou ?" What meaneth that 
command in Phil, ii, 3, " Let nothing be done 
through strife, or vain-glory ; but in lowliness 
of mind let each esteem other better than them- 
selves?" Read this verse over upon your 
knees, and beg of God to write it on your hearts ; 
and join with it Rom. xii, 10 : "Be kindly 
affectioned one to another with brotherly love, 
in honour preferring one another ;" that is, be- 
fore yourselves. But especially read and study 
James iii. In a word, if God would cure the 
church of religious pride — the pride of wisdom, 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 137 

and the pride of piety and goodness — the church 
would have fewer heresies and contentions, and 
have much more peace, and much more true 
wisdom and goodness in itself. 

DIRECTION III. 

Overvalue not the common gift of utterance, 
nor a high profession, as if the presence or ab- 
sence of either of them did prove the presence 
or absence of grace. 

Yet neither of these must be undervalued, 
nor accounted needless, useless things. But 
the overvaluing them hath caused great dis- 
tempers in the minds and affections, and com- 
munion and practice, of many very well-meaning 
Christians. When God had first brought me 
from among the more ignorant sort of people, 
and when I first heard religious persons pray 
without forms, and speak affectionately and 
seriously of spiritual and heavenly things, I 
thought verily that they were all undoubted 
saints ; and the sudden apprehension of the dif- 
ference of their gifts and speech from others, 
made me think confidently that the one sort 
had the mark of God upon them, and the other 
had nothing almost of God at all : till, ere long, 
many of those whom I so much honoured, began 
to discover an unscriptural disposition. But 



188 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

the experience of this kingdom these twenty- 
six years, hath done so much to convince the 
world what crimes may stand with high pro- 
fessions, that I know not that I ever met with 
the man that would deny it : seeing every sect 
casteth it upon all the rest, however some of 
them would justify themselves. But I greatly 
fear, lest the generation which is now springing 
up, and knew not those men, nor their miscar- 
riages, will lose the benefit of these dreadful 
warnings, and scarce believe what high pro- 
fessors did prove the proudest overturners of 
all government ; and resisters and despisers of 
ministry and holy order in the churches, and 
the most railing Quakers, and the most filthy 
and blaspheming ranters ; to warn all the world 
to take heed of being proud of superficial gifts 
and high professions ; and that he that standeth 
in his own conceit, should take heed lest he 
fall. 

When gifts of utterance in prayer or talking 
are thus overvalued, and high professions are 
taken to have more in them than they have, 
men presently model their affections, and then 
the church, according to their misconceivings ; 
and a talkative person, who by company and 
use hath got more of these gifts than better 
Christians, shall be extolled and admired, when 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 139 

many an humble, upright soul, that wanteth such 
utterance, shall be said to be no professor, and 
so to be unworthy of the communion of saints. 
Mistake me not ; I know that though profession 
may be without sincerity, yet sincerity cannot 
be without some profession, when there is op- 
portunity to make it : and I know that grace is 
a vital principle, and like fire which will work, 
and seek a vent if you would restrain it ; and 
that gifts of utterance are great mercies of God, 
for the edification of the church. But here 
lieth your unhappy error in this case ; you take 
a moderate profession of Christianity to be no 
profession at all, because there is wanting a 
profession of greater zeal and forwardness : 
whereas you should make proper allowance for 
constitutions and circumstances. 

In the place where I exercised my ministry, 
I found some gave me a satisfying evidence in 
their last sickness that they had long lived a 
truly godly life, who were never noted by their 
neighbours for any extraordinary zeal at all. 
If you ask me, How can it stand with grace to 
be so much hid ? I answer, they made a pro- 
fession of Christianity ; they usually attended 
the public worship; they lived blamelessly in 
their places : but they were of silent, retired 
dispositions, and were inferiors, who by their 



140 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

superiors were restrained from private meet- 
ings, and some converse with more zealous 
persons, which they desired. And for aught 
you know, there may be very many such, who 
must not be rejected as no professors, without 
a particular accusation and proof, unless you 
would be used in the like kind yourselves. 

DIRECTION IV. 

Affect not to be made eminent and conspicuous 
in holiness, by standing at a further distance 
from these lower professors than God would 
have you. It is the loathsome scab of the 
Romish Church, that they who will be taken for 
religious must go into a monastery of friars and 
nuns, and separate themselves from the rest 
of Christians as worldly, secular people, that so 
their religion may be a noted thing, and they 
may be set up in their singularity as public 
spectacles for the world to admire ; though, 
perhaps, they come thither but under the gripes 
of conscience, to expiate the guilt of whoredom, 
murder, or some notorious sins, which the con- 
temned seculars never committed. 

Many a one who perceiveth how childish a 
thing it is to set out one's self to be observed 
for fine clothes, or for bodily comeliness, or for 
high entertainments, curiosities, houses, lands, 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 141 

or such vanities, doth yet think that it is an 
excellent thing to be honoured by men, espe- 
cially by the wisest and the best, as a person of 
wisdom, and piety, and goodness. And, indeed, 
it is the truest and highest honour to be wise 
and good ; and it is exceeding natural to man 
to desire honour, and it is lawful to have a re- 
ligious regard to our honour. And this being 
so, how easy it is for pride to take this advan- 
tage, and to go a little farther, while we think 
we go but thus far and keep within our bounds. 

DIRECTION V. 

Search the Scriptures with diligence and prayer. 
Many are very sensible of the need of spirit- 
uality and seriousness in religion, and of the 
evil of hypocritical formality and imagery, and 
of usurpation of the prerogatives of Christ, and 
of the plague of persecuting pride and cruelty, 
who yet have little sense at all of the good of 
unity, and of the mischiefs of divisions in the 
church. Yea, many are so careful to be found 
exact in their obedience to God, that they build 
very much, for duties and against sins, upon 
dark and very far-fetched consequences, and 
upon a few obscure and doubtful passages in 
Scripture, when there is no express words, or 
clear text at all, to bear them out : and, doubt- 

10 



142 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

less, the darkest intimations of the will of God 
must not be disregarded. But, on the other 
side, we cannot bring them to lay to heart some 
duties and sins, which are over and over a hun- 
dred times, and that with vehemency^ expressed 
and argued in the plainest words. 

And because all Christians pretend to submit 
to the word of God, I will try whether it be not 
thus with you in the present case, and will cite 
many plain expressions of Scripture, for Chris- 
tian unity and concord, that, you may either bet- 
ter perceive your duty, or plainly show your 
great partiality. 

Zechariah iv, 9 ; Ezekiel xxxiv, 23 ; xxxvii, 
22, 24. Jeremiah xxxii, 39 ; Ezekiel xi, 19 
John xi, 52; xxi, 22; Acts i, 14; ii, 1; iv 
24, 32; v, 12; xv, 25; 2 Corinthians xi, 2 
Ephesians iv, 1, 12, 13. 1 Corinthians xii, 3 
12, 13, 15, 22, 23 ; xiii, 4, 5, 13 ; i, 10, 12, 13 
iii, 3, 4, 15. Romans xiv, 1, 3, 10, 13, 14, 17 
xv, 1, 2, 5, 6; xvi, 17, 18. Acts xx, 30 
John xiii, 35 ; 1 Corinthians xi, 17, 18. Mat 
thew xiii, 29, 30, 41, 47 ; xxii, 9, 10 ; Luke 
xiv; Galatians vi, 1; Philippians i, 15, 16; 
ii, 1, 2, 3, 14; iii, 15, 16; 1 Thessalonians v. 
12, 13 ; Titus iii, 10 ; James iii, 1, 2, 13, &c. 
Matt, xii, 25. 

I have cited so many texts against division. 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 143 

and for the unity of the church and concord of 
Christians, as one would think the very hearing 
of them, without exposition or argumentation, 
should utterly mortify all inclinations to divisions 
and hard censures, in all true believers : yea, so 
many texts as I am persuaded many that most 
need them, will think it tedious to look for and 
to read them over. And yet I have cause to 
fear, lest many such will feel as little of the sense 
and authority of them, as if there were no such 
words in the Scripture, and none of this had been 
set before them. 

Out of all these you may gather these reasons 
of the necessity of unity, and of the evil of schism 
or division. It is one end and happiness which 
we all expect; and one heaven that we must 
meet and live in for ever, (so many as are sincere 
in the faith which we profess :) and in heaven 
we shall have one mind and heart, and one em- 
ployment in the love and praise of our Creator 
and Redeemer, and one felicitating fruition of 
his glory for evermore. Therefore he that seeth 
not the necessity of unity, knoweth not the nature 
of the church, or faith, or true religion. 

An army is stronger than a man ; and a king- 
dom than a single person. A flame will burn 
more strongly than a spark ; and the waves of 
the ocean are more forcible than a single drop. 



144 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

A threefold cord is not easily broken. There- 
fore it is that commonwealths do seek to strength- 
en themselves by confederacies with other states. 
The church is like to an army with banners ; 
both for their numbers, their concord, and their 
order. And therefore Christ saith that a king- 
dom divided cannot stand. Union is the church's 
strength. And what good soever they may pre- 
tend, dividers are certainly the weakeners and 
destroyers of the church. And as those means 
which best corroborate the body, and fortify the 
spirits, do best cure many particular diseases 
which no means would cure while nature is 
debilitated; so are the church's diseases best 
cured by uniting, fortifying remedies, which will 
be increased by a dividing way of reformation. 
Dividing is wounding ; and uniting is the closing 
of the- wound. There is no good work but Sa- 
tan is a pretender to it, when he purposeth to 
destroy it. He resisteth light as an angel of 
light; and his ministers hinder righteousness, 
as pretended ministers of righteousness. And 
he will be a zealous reformer, when he would 
hinder reformation. And this is the mark of 
Satan's way of reformation : he doth it by di- 
viding the church of Christ, and teaching Chris- 
tians to avoid each other. And to that end he 
zealously aggravateth the faults of every party 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 145 

to the rest, that they may have odious thoughts 
of one another ; and Christian love may be turn- 
ed into aversion. As in the plague time every 
one is afraid of the breath and company of his 
neighbour ; and they that were wont to assem- 
ble, and converse with peace and pleasure, do 
timorously shun the presence of each other, be- 
cause they know that it is an infectious time, 
and they are uncertain who is free; even so 
doth Satan break the societies and converse 
of Christians, by making them believe that there 
is some dangerous infection, which, as they love 
their souls, they must avoid. And he destroy- 
eth your love to one another, by pretending love 
for yourselves. O how careful will he be for 
your souls ! When the Devil would undo you, 
he will do it as your saviour : and when his 
meaning is to save you from heaven, and from 
Christ, and from his saving grace, and from uni- 
on and communion with his church, and from 
the impartial love of one another, he takes on 
him that he is saving you only from sin, and 
from church corruptions ; or rather that it is 
Christ, and not he, that giveth you counsel : and 
he can do much in imitating Christ, in the man- 
ner of his suggestions, to make you believe that 
it is Christ indeed. Perhaps his counsel shall 
come in the midst of & fervent prayer, or present- 



146 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

ly after it, to make you believe that it is an un- 
doubted answer of your prayers. And often- 
times his impulses are vehement, and much af- 
fecting, to make you think that it is something 
above nature : and the pious pretence will much 
persuade you to think that sure this can never 
come from an evil spirit. But if you had well 
studied 2 Cor. xi, 13-15 ; Gal. i, 8 ; Luke ix, 
55 ; 1 John iv, 1, 2 ; 2 Thess t ii, 2 ; you might 
be wiser, and be saved from this deceit. I will 
not recite the words ; because I would have you 
turn to them, and seriously study them. 

Remember also, that the unity of Christians 
is their peace and ease, as well as their strength 
and safety. Psalm cxxxiii, 1 : " Behold, how 
good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell to- 
gether in unity !" 

As the amity and converse with friends is 
pleasant, and the concord of families is their quiet- 
ness and ease ; so it is as to that amity and con- 
cord which is the bond of church society : and 
the divisions and discord of Christians is their 
mutual pain and trouble. Do you not feel your 
minds disturbed by it ? Do you not see the church 
discomposed by it ? The itch of contention doth 
ordinarily make it pleasant for the time, to scratch 
by zealous wranglings and disputes for their se- 
veral opinions, till the blood be ready to follow : 



HEAKT AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 147 

but the smart and scab doth use to convince them 
of their folly. But if they will go more than 
skin deep, they may need a surgeon. Children 
will claw themselves; but it is madmen that 
will wound themselves. The hurt which we 
get in the Christian warfare, by mortifying the 
flesh, or by the persecution of the malignant 
enemy, is tenderly healed by the hand of Christ, 
and usually furthereth our inward peace. But 
if we will hurt and wound ourselves, what pity 
or comfort can we expect? 

Consider also that the unity and concord of 
believers is their honour, and their divisions and 
discord are their shame : and consequently the 
honour or dishonour of Christ, and the gospel, 
and religion, is much concerned in it. Agree- 
ment among Christians telleth the world that 
they have a certainty of the faith which they 
profess, and that it is powerful, and not ineffect- 
ual ; and that it is of a healing nature, and tend- 
eth to the felicity of the world. But divisions 
and discords among Christians persuade unbe- 
lievers that there is no certainty in their belief; 
or that it is of a vexatious and destructive ten- 
dency ; or at best that all its power is too weak 
to overcome the malignity which it pretendeth 
to resist. "Where did you ever see Christians 
live in undivided unity, undisturbed peace, and 



148 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

unfeigned love, but the very infidels and ungod- 
ly round about them, did reverence them and 
their religion for it ? And where did you ever 
see Christians divided, unpeaceable, and bitter 
against each other, but it made them and their 
profession a scorn to the unbelieving and ungod- 
ly world ? And while they despise and villify 
one another, they teach the wicked to despise 
and villify them all. 

Peace and concord are amiable even to na- 
ture. And you can scarce take a more effectual 
means to win the world to the love of holiness, 
than by showing them that holiness doth make 
you unfeigned and fervent in the love of one 
another. 1 Pet. i, 22. Nor can you devise how 
to drive men more effectually from Christ, and 
to damn their souls, than to represent Christians 
to them like a company of madmen, that are 
tearing out the throats of one another. How 
can you think that the unbelievers and ungodly 
should think well of them that all speak so ill 
of one another ? 

External unity and peaceable church com- 
munion doth greatly cherish our internal unity 
of love : and church divisions do cherish wrath 
and malice, and all the works of the flesh de- 
scribed by Paul, Gal. v, 21-23. I pray you 
consider how he describeth the fleshly and spi- 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 149 

ritual man, ver. 14, 15: "For all the law is 
fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt 
love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite 
and devour one another, take heed that ye be 
not consumed one of another. I say then, Walk 
in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of 
the flesh : for the flesh lusteth against the Spi- 
rit," &c. " Now the works of the flesh are mani- 
fest : — adultery, enmities or hatred, variance, 
emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, (or, as it may 
be read, divisions or factions,) heresies, envyings, 
murders, &c. But the fruit of the Spirit is 
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, good- 
ness, faith, meekness, temperance : against such 
there is no law. And they that are Christ's 
have crucified the flesh, with the affections and 
lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk 
in the Spirit ; let us not be desirous of vain- 
glory, provoking one another, envying one 
another." 

Objection. O, but those I complain of are 
guilty of this, that, and the other fault. 

Answ. Chap, vi, 1 : " Brethren, if a man be 
overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual re- 
store such a one in the spirit of meekness; 
considering thyself lest thou also be tempted." 
Instead of censorious disdain and separation, 
" bear ye one another's burden, and so fulfil 



150 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

the law of Christ :" which you think you fulfil 
by your unwarrantable conduct, while you are 
but fulfilling your fleshly passions. When once 
parties are engaged by their opinions in fierce 
disputings, the flesh and Satan will be working 
in them against all that is holy, sweet, and safe. 
When uniting Christians are provoking one an- 
other to love and to good works, and minding 
each other of their heavenly cohabitation and 
harmonious praise ; and are delighting God and 
man by the melody of their concord ; the con- 
tentious zealots are preaching down love, and 
preaching up hatred, and making those that 
differ from them seem an odious people not to 
be borne with. James iii, 1, &c. : " My bre- 
thren, be not many teaching masters, (for this 
is the word,) knowing that we shall receive the 
greater condemnation: for in many things we 
offend all. If any man offend not in word, the 
same is a perfect man ;" that is, if you will 
show that you are perfect, and better yourselves 
than those whom you account so bad, see that 
your foul, backbiting, reviling, censorious, con- 
tentious tongues, do not prove the contrary. 
Ver. 13 : "Who is a wise man and endued with 
knowledge among you ? let him show out of a 
good conversation his works with meekness 
of wisdom ;" that is, let him that will be thought 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 151 

more knowing and religious than his neighbours, 
be so much more blameless and meek to all 
men, and excel in good works. Verse 14 : " But 
if you have a bitter zeal (for so is the Greek 
word) and strife in jour hearts, glory not," — in 
such a zeal, or in your greater knowledge, — 
" and lie not against the truth." Verse 15 : 
" This wisdom descendeth not from above," (as 
you imagine who father it on God's word and 
Spirit,) " but is earthly, sensual, or natural and 
devilish." O doleful mistake, that the world, 
the flesh, and the devil, should prove the cause 
of that conceited spiritual knowledge and ex- 
cellency, which they thought had been the 
inspiration of the Spirit ! Verse 16: " For 
where zeal and strife is," (that is, a striving, con- 
tentious zeal against brethren,) "there is con- 
fusion," (or tumult and unquietness,) "and every 
evil work." O lamentable reformers, that set 
up every evil work, while they seem zealous 
against evil ! Verse 17 : " But the wisdom that 
is from above is first pure, then peaceable, 
gentle, and easy to be entreated ; full of mercy 
and good fruits ; without partiality," (or wran- 
gling,) " and without hypocrisy. And the fruit 
of righteousness is sown in peace, of them that 
make peace ;" when peace-breakers that sow 
contention shall reap the fruit of unrighteous- 



152 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OP 

ness, though they call their way by the most 
religious names. 

Resolve with Austin, I will not be the chaff; 
and yet I will not go out of the floor, though the 
chaff be there. Never give over your just de- 
sire and endeavour of reformation ; and yet, as 
long as possibly you can avoid it, forsake not 
those who, as you suppose, are in some things 
wrong. As Paul said to them that were ready 
to forsake a sea-wrecked vessel, " If they abide 
not in the ship, ye cannot be saved." Many 
a one by unlawful flying, and shifting for his 
own greater peace and safety, doth much more 
hazard his own and others. Many weak Chris- 
tians, marking those texts which bid us avoid a 
man that is a heretic, and have no company 
with disorderly walkers, and not to eat with 
flagitious persons, do not sufficiently mark their 
sense ; but take them as if they called us to 
separate from the church with which these per- 
sons do communicate. Whereas, if you mark 
all the texts in the gospel, you shall find that 
all the separation which is commanded in such 
cases, (besides our separation from the infidels, 
or idolatrous world, or antichristian and he- 
retical confederacies,) is but one of these two 
sorts : first, either that the church cast out the 
impenitent sinner by the power of the keys ; or, 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 153 

secondly, that private men avoid all private fa- 
miliarity with them. And both these we would 
promote, and no way hinder. 

But that the private members should sepa- 
rate from the church, because such persons are 
not cast out of it, show me one text to prove it, 
if you can. 

Let us here peruse the texts that speak of 
our withdrawing from the wicked. 1 Cor. v, 
is expressly written to the whole church, as 
obliged " to put away the incestuous person 
from among them, and so not to eat with such 
offenders." So is that in 2 Thess. iii, and that 
in Tit. iii, 10 : "A man that is an heretic, after 
the first and second admonition avoid." Unless 
it be an heretic that hath already separated 
himself from our communion ; and then it can 
be but private familiarity which we are farther 
to avoid. In brief, there is no other place of 
Scripture, that I know of, which commandeth 
any more. The apostle never spake a syllable 
to any one Christian, to separate from any one 
of all those churches ; which we cannot imagine 
the Holy Ghost would have wholly omitted, if 
it had been the will of God. Here are two 
things which I desire you to observe : First, 
what is Christ's appointed way for removing 
members from the communion of the church. 



154: CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

Secondly, how great a sin it is to remove them 
by a contrary and arbitrary way of our own 
presumptuous invention. 

First. It is supposed that the person is not 
a professed apostate : for there needeth no cast- 
ing out of such. He that turneth Turk or 
heathen, or openly renounceth Christianity, or 
ceaseth the profession of it, doth go out of the 
church himself, and needeth not be cast out. 
Unless it be a tyrant who will come to the 
communion in scorn, while he professeth but to 
show his lawless will. He that seeketh the 
communion of the church in sobriety, thereby 
professeth himself a Christian : and Christ's 
way of rejecting such is plainly described in 
the gospel. Matt, xviii, 15, 16; Titus iii, 10; 
1 Cor. v, 7, 11-13. 

By all this it is plain that the church must 
exercise a regular course of justice, with every 
person that it shall reject. He must first be 
told privately of his fault, and then before two 
or three; (unless, at least, the open notoriety 
make the private admonition needless.) And 
then it must be told the church : and the church 
must with compassion, tenderness, and patience, 
and yet with the authority of the Lord Jesus, 
and the powerful evidence of truth, convince 
him and persuade him to repent ; and he must 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 155 

not be rejected, till, after all this, he obstinately 
refuse to hear the church ; that is, to repent, as 
they exhort him. 

Note also, that no private person may expect 
that any offender be cast out, either because 
his sin is known to him, or because he is com- 
monly famed to be guilty, till the thing be 
proved by sufficient witness. Yea, the admo- 
nition given him must be proved, as well as 
the fault which he committed. Yea, if all the 
town do know him to be guilty, and witness 
prove that he hath been privately admonished, 
he may not be rejected, till he be heard to speak 
for himself and till he refuse also the regular 
admonition. 

This is Christ's order, whose wisdom, and 
mercy, and authority, are such, as may well 
cause us to take his way as best. And yet 
the ignorance or rashness of many professors 
is such, that they would have all this order of 
Christ overturned : and some of them must 
have such persons kept away and rejected, before 
ever they have admonished them, or exhorted 
them to repentance, or proved that any one else 
hath done it ; much more before they have told 
the minister, or proved that he hath neglected 
the minister's admonition. 

The sinfulness of unchurching persons, with- 



156 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OP 

out Christ's way of regular process, consisteth 
in all these following parts : — 

1. It is a casting off the laws of the great 
Lawgiver of the church, and so a contempt of 
his authority, wisdom, and goodness ; and a 
making of ourselves greater, or wiser, or holier, 
than he. 

2. It is gross injustice to deprive men of so 
great privileges without any sufficient proof of 
their forfeiture. 

3. And it is an aggravated crime in them, 
that so much cry down church tyranny in others, 
to be thus notoriously guilty of it themselves. 
What greater injustice and tyranny can there 
be, than that men's Christianity and church 
rights shall be judged null, upon the censures 
and rumours of suspicious men, without any just 
proof or lawful trial ? That it shall be in the 
power of every one who hath uncharitableness 
enough to think evil of his neighbours, or to 
believe reports against their innocency, to cast 
them out of the family of God, and to unchris- 
tian and unchurch men arbitrarily at their 
pleasure ? That any man, who in the heat of 
his spirit is but unreasonable enough to say, 
"They are ignorant or profane" shall expect 
to have hi3 neighbours excommunicated ? 

4. It maketh all churches to be lubricous and 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 157 

uncertain shadows, when a censorious person 
may unchurch them at his pleasure. What you 
say of others, another may say of you, and as 
justly expect to be believed. 

5. It unavoidably bringeth in incurable divi- 
sions ; for there is no certain rule of justice 
with such persons ; and, therefore, they know 
not who are to be received to their communion, 
and who not. And the same man that one will 
think ought to be rejected and kept out, another 
will think is to be received. 

And let it be well observed, the power of 
baptizing is the power of the keys for reception 
into the church. The private members have 
not the power of baptizing, nor were the pastors 
ever appointed to do it by their advice, consent, 
or vote. Therefore, the private members have 
not the power of the keys for admission ; and 
it is most apparent in the gospel that the keys 
for admission and for exclusion are given into 
the same hands, and not one to the ministers 
and another to the flock : therefore, the people 
that have not the first, have not the latter. For 
full proof of this, observe the meaning of 
these texts : — Isa. xxii, 22 ; ix, 6 ; Matt, xvi, 
19; xviii, 18; John xx, 23. Matt, xxviii, 19; 
John xx, 21; Acts i, 16, 17; xx, 28; Eom. 
i, 1 ; 1 Cor. iv, 1. Acts xiv, 23 ; Titus i, 

11 



158 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

3, 7. 1 Tim. iii, 5 ; v, 17 ; 1 Pet. v, 2. Heb, 
xiii, 7, 17, 24. 1 Thess. v, 12, 13. Bead 
these with judgment, and then believe, if you 
can, that the power of the keys or government 
is in the people. Show us what text doth give 
them that power. And where the Scripture 
calleth them to exercise it by votes. Or where 
he calleth them to leave their callings, and at- 
tend this work. When those that must perform 
it, he separateth to it as by office, and calleth to 
give themselves wholly thereto. 1 Tim. iv, 15, 16. 
Tell us when the people were authorized to bap- 
tize, or to rule the church ; that is, themselves. 
•Objection. In Matt, xviii, 15 : " Tell the 
church | if he hear not the church," &c. Answ. 
Many expositors think that by the church there 
is meant the ministers only; by this reason, — 
The church that must teach must be heard ; the 
church that must be heard must be told: but 
that is only the pastors and not the people. 
Ergo — But suppose I grant you, that the word 
[church~\ there signifieth the whole congrega- 
tion, (as Dr. Taylor sayeth in his second dis- 
suasive,) yet it is an organized body only ; and 
so the office is to be performed only by the 
organical part, and not by any of the rest. 
When I say to a man, " Hear me ;" I do not mean 
that he should hear me with his eyes, but only 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 159 

with his ears. And when I bid him see or read, 
I bid him not to do it with his ears, but with 
his eyes. Nor do the eyes receive this power 
from the feet or hands, but immediately from 
the head : though if they were separated from 
the body, they could not retain it. Objection. 
1 Cor. v : Paul biddeth all the church to put 
from among them that wicked person. Answ. 
Note that Paul passed the sentence first him- 
self, [I have judged as if I ivere present (not 
that you deliver, but) to deliver such a one to 
Satan,] a|i&Aerefore, doth this himself in the 

fme of the Lord Jesus, and supposeth himself 
long them in spirit and power, when they do 
\_and my spirit with the power of our Lord 
Jesus Christ.'] 

2. And^J have saidf h£ speaketh to an or- 
ganized church, which had two parts, and 
accordingly two works to do. The riding part 
was to put away the offender by judgment, or 
sentence ; and the people were all to put him 
away, by actual shunning his communion ; which 
is but the obeying that sentence. If the king 
send to a corporation to execute any law, he 
meaneth not that aM persons must do it in the 
like manner ; but the magistrates by command, 
and the people by obeying them, and executing 
their commands. If I desire a man to tran- 



160 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

scribe me a book, and bring it me ; I mean not 
that every part of him shall herein have the 
same office : bat that he read it only with his 
eyes, and understand it with his reason, and 
transcribe it with his hand, and travel with his 
feet. The pastors only excommunicate by 
judgment or sentence, and the people by obe- 
dient execution. 

Farther you are not at all bound to know 
what the spiritual state of any man is, as he is 
to join in church communion with you, but upon 
your pastor's trust and word. Whether their 
understanding be sufficient at thek admittance, 
you are not anywhere called to try: but tft 
pastor is : and if he have admitted them, ydtt 
are to rest in his judgment, unless you would 
undertake the office yourself. Whether their 
profession of faith and repentance be serious 
and credible, you are not called to try and 
judge ; but if your pastor have admitted them, 
he hath numbered them with the visible church ; 
and it is the credibility of the pastor that you 
have to consider ; and by him you must judge 
of the credibility of the professor, and not im- 
mediately by your own trial. Who are the 
persons that you shall meet at a sacrament or 
in public communion you are not at all re- 
quired to try ; and if you never saw them before, 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 161 

or heard them speak, you may perform your 
duty nevertheless ; indeed, if as a neighbour 
you are called to instruct, or counsel, or comfort 
them, you must do it: but there may be five 
thousand in one church with you, whose names 
or faces you are not bound to know ; but to 
rest in the knowledge of them to whom the 
keys are committed, who according to their 
office take them in. 

Objection. But what if they are notoriously 
wicked ? must I be blind f 

Answ. No. You must do your best, by 
neighbourly watchfulness and help, (though not 
by pastoral government,) to reform all about 
you to whom you are able to do good. And 
if you know them to be so bad, you must pri- 
vately admonish them, as is proved : and then 
if they hear not, tell the minister. But if you 
see a man in the church at the sacrament, or a 
thousand men, who are unreformed, and you 
know it not, you have no reason to avoid the 
communion of such. And if there be a thousand 
in the church whose case you are strangers to, 
this may be no sin of yours ; and should be no 
impediment of your communion. 

Objection. But will it not be my sin, if I com- 
municate with such as I know to be wicked; when 
a little leaven leaveneth the lump f 



162 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

Answ. It will be your sin, if you obey not 
Christ (Matt, xviii, 15) in admonishing them ; 
and so if it be through you that they are not 
removed. But otherwise, if they be there with- 
out your fault, it is no more your sin to com- 
municate with such men, than it is to live and 
converse with fellow-servants that are wicked ; 
when it is not you, but your master, that hath the 
choice of them. And the leavening of the lump, 
of which the text speaketh, is the tempting of 
others to the like sin ; and not that the innocent 
shall be held guilty. Christ's outward discipline 
is agreeable to his inward. As those that come 
to him by faith, he will in no wise cast out or 
reject ; so those that come to him by profession 
of faith, he will not have his ministers in any 
wise reject. And coming to Christ when he 
was personally on earth, did signify the follow- 
ing of him, as well as believing in him ; just so 
far as men will come, so far they shall be re- 
ceived by Christ : if they will come but toward 
him, he will not put them back. If they will 
come but to his visible church by a dead profes- 
sion, he would not have his ministers repulse 
them as long as their lives are moral. The out- 
ward privileges of the visible church which they 
come to, they shall possess. If they will come 
over to the church of the regenerate, they shall 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 163 

be saved. But wherever they stop, it shall be 
their own doing. Many came to Christ when 
he was on earth, whom he never repulsed, though 
he was marvelled at and grudged at for enter- 
taining them. Some came so far as to own his 
name, and did miracles by it, that yet did not 
follow him : whom the apostles would have hin- 
dered, but Christ reproved them. Mark ix, 38 ; 
Luke ix, 49. Some came only to receive a cure 
of their diseases from him, whom his disciples 
sometimes repulsed, but so did not he. When 
little children were brought to him, his disciples 
rebuked them that brought them, as thinking 
them unfit for his reception ; but Christ rebuked 
them for their forbidding of such guests. When 
he eat and drank with publicans and sinners, 
and when he received a kindness from a woman 
that had been a great sinner, the Pharisees cen- 
sured him therefore, as ungodly; but yet he 
would not abate his clemency. And though 
Simon Magus would not come out of the gall 
of bitterness and bond of iniquity, yet was he 
not kept out of the visible church, when he pro- 
fessed to believe, and desired baptism. 

Indeed, if men will not come so far as to the 
profession of true faith or repentance, they are 
not to be received into the church, because the 
church is a society of such professors ; and if 



164 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

they will not come, they cannot be received. 
But if Christians had well studied the compas- 
sions of a Saviour, and the tenor of his gos- 
pel, and his practice upon earth; and instead 
of a surly flying from their neighbours, and 
groundless censuring them, were possessed, 
themselves with that love and tenderness, which 
is the evangelical temper and the image of 
their Lord ; it would put an end to many divi- 
sions, and bring us nearer the truth and one 
another. 

It is far from the mind of Christ that no dif- 
ference should be made between the holy and 
profane, the precious and the vile ; or that se- 
rious piety should be suppressed or discouraged ; 
or faithful preachers hindered from promoting it ; 
or ignorant, graceless ministers, countenanced — 
under pretence of peace or order. The design 
of Christ was not like Mohammed's, to get him- 
self an earthly kingdom and numerous followers, 
merely to cry up his name ; and therefore he 
will not indulge men in their sins, nor abate or 
alter the conditions of the covenant to win dis- 
ciples. He will have his ministers deal plainly 
with all to whom they preach, and let them know, 
that without self-denial and forsaking all, (in es- 
timation and resolution,) and a willing exchange 
of earth for heaven, thev cannot be his true dis- 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 165 

ciples ; nor without a professed consent to thus 
much, they cannot be his visible professed disci- 
ples: but all that will not repent must perish. 
His ministers also must impartially exercise the 
keys which he hath committed to their trust, and 
must not fear the faces of men, who at most are 
able but to kill the body. Luke xii, 4. They 
must discern between the righteous and the wick- 
ed ; and draw all scandalous sinners to repent- 
ance, or else exclude them from the communion 
of the saints, that the world may see that Christ is 
no friend to profane persons, or sensual fleshly 
brutes. If you meet a profane person at the 
Lord's table, it is your own fault or the pastor's : 
but if you keep company needlessly with such, 
or marry such, it is your own fault altogether. 
If the pastor do not excommunicate them, you 
may choose not to be familiar with them. Though 
you meet them at the church, and pray with them ; 
you need not meet them at other places, and 
drink with them. Though you may not with a 
few of the most godly separate from the public 
communion of all the rest ; yet you may keep a 
more intimate familiarity with those few than 
with all the rest. And if you will consider, this 
is all that is necessary to your own duty, and 
that which is best for your own edification. 
Keep thus to a strictness within the bounds of 



166 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

your own place and calling, and God will bless 
you in such a strictness. 

The teachings, commands, exhortations, and 
reproofs of God, are directed to the will of man ; 
and the promises and threatenings, mercies and 
judgments, are used to move and change the 
will : and in the tenor of his laws and covenants, 
Christ hath set life and death before men, and 
put their happiness in their own choice ; and no 
man shall have better or worse than he made 
choice of — that is, none shall be either happy 
or miserable, but as they did choose or refuse the 
causes of happiness or misery. And the reason 
of this is, because natural free will was a part 
of the natural image of God on Adam ; and it 
is as natural to a man to be a, free agent, as to 
be reasonable. And God will govern man as 
man, agreeably to his nature. Therefore do 
not wonder if church privileges are principally 
left to men's own wills or choice, when their sal- 
vation is left to it. And for us to grudge at this 
order of God, is but to quarrel at wisdom and 
goodness, and to correct God's order by our dis- 
order. The man that came in without a wed- 
ding-garment, is blamed, and bound hand and 
foot, and punished 2 but the minister that called 
him in, and admitted him, is not blamed ; because 
he knew not his hypocrisy, but did as he was 






HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 167 

bidden : he went to the highways and hedges, 
and compelled them by importunity to come in, 
that the house might be filled. Nor were any 
that came in with him blamed, for having com- 
munion with such. For they were in their places, 
and did as they were exhorted to do. And so 
will it be in the case that is before us. 

DIRECTION VI. 

Beware of being governed by your passions. 
We are seldom more mistaken in justifying our- 
selves than in our passions ; and when our pas- 
sions are religious, the mistake is both most easy 
and most perilous. Easy, because we are apt 
to be most confident, and not suspect them, the 
matter seeming so great and good about which 
they are exercised; and perilous, because the 
greatness and goodness of the matter doth make 
the error the greater and the worse. I have 
showed before how easy it is to think that our 
religious passions are all the works of the Spirit 
of God ; for we are apt to estimate them by the 
depth and earnestness which we feel. But ex- 
cellent persons have been here mistaken, as 
James and John were. And not only so, but 
when the passion is up, the judgment itself is 
seldom to be trusted ; for it inclineth us to err 
in all things that concern the present business. 



168 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

Therefore, still remember the difference between 
true zeal and false ; and know that he that is 
upright in the main, and whose zeal for Chris- 
tianity is sound, may yet have much zeal that 
is unsound with it. 

First. It is an ill sign when your zeal is 
raised about some singular opinion which you 
have owned, and not for the common salvation 
and substance of the Christian faith or practice ; 
or at least when your odd opinion hath a 
greater proportion of your zeal than many more 
plain and necessary truths. 

Secondly. When your zeal is moved by any 
personal interest of your own : by honour or 
dishonour ; by any wrong that is done you ; or 
any reputation of wisdom or goodness which 
lieth on the cause ; or at least when your oivn 
interest hath too large a proportion in your 
zeal. 

Thirdly. When your zeal is more for the 
interest of your adherents than for the church, 
and the common cause of godliness and Chris- 
tianity, and can be content that some detriment 
to the whole may further the interest of you and 
your adherents. 

Fourthly. When your zeal tendeth to hurt 
and cruelty, and would have God rather to glo- 
rify his justice by some present notable judg- 






HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 169 

nient, than his mercy by patience and forgiving : 
and when your secret desire <£ fire from heaven, 
or some destruction of the adversaries, is greater 
than your desire and prayer for their conversion. 
The sure mark of true zeal is, that it is zealous 
love : it maketh you love your neighbours and 
enemies more fervently than others do ; but 
false zeal maketh you more inclined to their 
suffering, and to reproach them. 

Fifthly. It is an ill sign when your zeal is 
beyond the proportion of your understanding ; 
and your prudence and experience are as much 
less than other men's, as your zeal is greater. 
True zeal hath some equality of light and heat. 

Sixthly. It is an ill sign when it is a zeal 
which is easily kept alive, and hardly .restrained : 
for that showeth the flesh and the devil are too 
much its friends. True zeal of the spirit doth 
need the fuel of all holy means, and the bellows 
of meditation and prayer to kindle it : and all 
is too little to keep it up in the constancy that 
we desire. But carnal zeal will burn of itself 
without such endeavours. 

Seventhly. It is an ill sign when some for- 
ward teacher was the kindler of it ; and not the 
sober preaching of the truth. 

Eighthly. And it is an ill sign when it burn- 
etii in the same soul where lust, or wrath, or 



170 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

pride, or malice, burns ; and when it prospereth 
at the same time when the love of God, and a 
heavenly mind and life, decay. The zeal of a 
sensualist, of a proud man, of a covetous man, 
of a self-conceited, empty person, can hardly 
be thought a spiritual zeal. 

Ninthly. And it is an ill sign when it carrieth 
you from the holy rule ; and pretendeth to come 
from a spirit which will not be tried by the 
Scripture : or when it driveth you to use means 
which God forbiddeth in his word ; and putteth 
you upon ways which the sealed law and testi- 
mony condemn. It cannot be of God, if it is 
against God's word. 

By all these signs you may easily perceive 
how dividing zeal doth differ from the genuine 
Christian zeal. The one is a zeal for some 
singular opinion : the other is a zeal for god- 
liness and Christianity. The one is kindled by 
some interest of our own religious reputation : 
the other is kindled by the interest of the will 
and glory of God. The one is a burning, hurt- 
ing zeal, even the same which hath made matter 
for so many martyrologies and frightful his- 
tories, by inquisitions, torments, prisons, flames, 
massacres, and bloody wars, and the same 
which has silenced so many faithful ministers, 
and disturbed so many states and churches : the 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 171 

other is a zeal of love, which maketh men fer- 
vent in doing good to others. The one causeth 
men to revile, and despise, and censure, and 
backbite, and zealously to make others seem 
odious, that the hearers may abate their love 
to them : the other maketh us value all that 
is good in others, and to hide their nakedness, 
and to make them better, and to provoke the 
hearers to love and to good works. The one 
tendeth to divisions, and sidings, and separa- 
tions, and distances from our brethren ; and to 
feed contentions : the other is a zeal for unity, 
amity, and peace. The one is the complexion 
of the weak and childish, the proud and self- 
conceited, the peevish and surly, sort of pro- 
fessors : the other is the zeal of solid knowledge, 
and of the prudent, humble, meek, and well- 
grounded sort of Christians. The one is a 
zeal which flieth most outward, against the sins 
of other men, and can live with pride, and 
covetousness, and selfishness, and sensuality, at 
home — such serve not the Lord Jesus, but their 
own bellies. Eom. xvi, 17, 18 : the other be- 
ginneth at home, and consumeth all these vices 
in the heart ; and as zeal increaseth, humility, 
meekness, love, self-denial, temperance, and 
heavenly-mindedness, increase. The one is 
easily got and easily kept, and hardly kept 



172 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

under ! O how easy is it to get and keep a 
contemptuous, censorious, backbiting, dividing, 
or persecuting zeal ! But the other is not so 
much befriended by Satan or the flesh, and. 
therefore, must be preserved by prayer and 
meditation, and very great diligence. How hard 
is it to keep up a zealous love of God and man, 
and a fervour in all our heavenly and spiritual 
desires ! Abate but your diligence, and this will 
presently decay; when the fierce contending, 
hurting, separating, and persecuting zeal, doth 
need no such fuel or labour to maintain it. The 
one is kindled by the inflaming censures of some 
rash and passionate person, that knoweth better 
how to hill love than to cause it; or by the singular 
conceits of some divider ; or by the backbitings 
of some Doeg, or malicious calumniator : the 
other is kindled by the humble and heavenly 
preaching of the gospel, and by meditations on 
Christ's example, and a study to imitate him 
and his saints in patience, forbearance, forgiving 
others, and doing good. The one is a zeal 
which carrieth men from the Scripture ; to pre- 
tences of such revelations, inspirations, and 
impulses, as have no proof, but the feeling and 
fancy of the person ; or, at least, to abuse the 
word of God, and plead it for that which is 
condemned — it provoketh men to some unlawful 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 173 

practice, under pretence of misinterpreted texts, 
and of good ends and meanings : the other 
still putteth you upon good, and striveth against 
evil, and goeth for trial of every cause to the 
law and to the testimony. And, lastly, the 
one is a zeal which pretendeth to have the 
Spirit, and yet goeth contrary to the com- 
mon workings of the Spirit, in the most part 
of the best and wisest Christians : but the other 
is the common vital heat which animateth all 
the body of Christ, and actuateth all his living 
members ; and keepeth up love and holiness in 
the church ; and is the same in all humble, 
heavenly Christians, in the world. It will be 
of great use to you, in order to your own and 
the church's peace, to understand and observe 
the difference between these contrary sorts of 
religious zeal. 

There are many women and passionate Chris- 
tians who are earnest in prayer, but sometimes 
they run into this mistake, to judge unground- 
edly of the answer of their prayers, by such 
conceits and strong apprehensions of their own, 
as never came from the Spirit of God at all. 
And it is a great wrong to God, to be made the 
author of man's infirmities and errors, and of 
that which is contrary to his word. And yet it 
is a very pitiful case as to the offenders ; be- 

12 



174 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

cause it is usually the sin of persons that are 
very upright and honest in the main, and that 
are very serious in their prayers to God ; and 
of such as have naturally such weakness of 
reason, and strength of affection, as that they 
are less blameable, though less curable, than 
others are. 

There are very few that take their impulses 
and resolutions for the Spirit's answer of their 
prayers, but they had before an understanding 
most inclined to that opinion, or else a bias upon 
their affections, bending them that way ; or 
something in themselves which occasioned the 
scales to turn that way. 

Objection. " But I did bring my mind to a 
pure impartiality, and prayed to God that he 
would show me the truth, be it what it would : 
and that if this were not right, he would blast 
it, and never suffer it to go on ; and the more 
I prayed, the more I was confirmed that this is 
the right." 

Answ. All this may be, without any of God's 
approbation of the conclusion which you think 
is his answer to your prayers. For while you 
prayed that God would turn your mind from it, 
if it were not right ; yet at that time your judg- 
ment was inclined to it, or your affections at 
least : and it is an easier thing to speak impar- 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 175 

tial words in prayer, than to get an impartial, 
unprejudiced mind. And when you think your 
mind is brought to an impartiality, alas ! there 
may be many deep roots of prejudice which you 
observe not ; and there is scarce one of a thou- 
sand, who thinketh that he prayeth with a pure 
impartiality, but his opinion, disposition, incli- 
nation, interest, or secret affection, doth bias 
and ponderate his mind more to one side than 
to the other. But if you were never so will- 
ing to know the truth, yet there are passions 
in you, and corruptions, and ignorance, and 
former errors, which may all do much to hinder 
you from knowing it ; and may breed many 
false apprehensions in your mind; and yet 
you may cherish them with as dear an espousal 
and affection, as if they were certainly from 
God. 

And moreover, you have been guilty of form- 
er sins ; and whether God for any of them may 
leave you to run into mistakes, you know not ; 
or whether any present self-con ceitedness may 
occasion him to leave you to mistakes. But the 
principal part of my answer is this, God hath 
nowhere promised to reveal all his truth to you, 
because you desire him so to do. It is not every 
prayer of yours, which he hath promised to hear 
and grant; but only those which are agreeable 



176 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

to his will: his will is either his command or 
his promise. 

You may not suppose that God will grant all 
the prayers which are put up in obedience to 
his commands : but only that you shall be no 
losers by such obedience ; but he will give you 
that, or something which shall be as good for 
you. It may be God's command that godly 
children should pray for the lives of their sick 
parents ; and that parents pray for the conver- 
sion of their ungodly children ; and that we pray 
for all men : and yet it doth not follow that we 
shall have the very thing which we obediently 
pray for. Bat it is his promising will which is 
the measure of our hope, as his commanding will 
is the rule of our obedience. Whatever he hath 
promised he will certainly give us. Now God 
hath nowhere promised in his word that he 
will reveal the true meaning of every text of 
Scripture to every godly person that asketh it. 

Praying is but one of the means which God 
hath appointed you to come to knowledge. Dili- 
gent reading, hearing, and meditation, and the 
counsel of the wisest, is another means; even 
to dig for it as for silver, and to search for it as 
for hidden treasure: and to continue so doing, 
and to wait at the posts of wisdom's doors, that 
knowledge may come into you by degrees and 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 177 

in time. God hath not promised you true un- 
derstanding upon your prayers alone, without 
all the rest of his appointed means ; nor that 
you shall attain it by those means, as soon as 
you desire and seek it : for then prayer would 
be a notable pretence for laziness, and they that 
would not be at the labour of study, meditation, 
or conference, might save all their pains, and go 
to God and ask wisdom of him, and he would 
give it them ; even as idle beggars think with- 
out working to get an alms to maintain them in 
their slothfulness. If instead of all our reading, 
hearing, and meditation, we could but pray, and 
so get all the knowledge which other men study, 
labour, and wait for, it would be too cheap a way 
to wisdom. Solomon, that got it by prayer, 
commandeth us very great diligence to get it. 

It is very considerable, not only that Christ 
increased in wisdom in his youth, but also that 
he would not enter upon his public ministry 
(as is aforesaid) till he was about thirty years 
of age. When it had been more easy for Christ 
to have got all knowledge by two or three 
earnest prayers, than for any of us. 

Moreover you must pray according to God's 
will of precept, not only in the matter, but in the 
manner of your prayers. And there may be 
more selfishness, and many other corruptions 



178 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

in the manner of them, than you discern. And 
there are many things which with submission 
you may lawfully pray for, which God hath never 
promised you at all. You may pray for the 
life of the sick, and for the conversion and sal- 
vation of all your relations, and of thousands of 
others, which God will not give you. Other- 
wise all the relations of every true Christian 
should be saved, yea, and all his enemies, and 
all the world. To apply all this, It may be you 
are in doubt, whether this or the other be the 
meaning of such a text of Scripture. Or whe- 
ther you should proceed in such a business, or 
should join in the use of such preaching and 
prayers, or not. And when you have prayed 
earnestly, you are confirmed for one way, and 
against the other. And perhaps all this is but 
to be confirmed in your error. For, first, you 
came with distempered affections ; or with such 
a fear of going one way rather than the other, 
that the very fear doth much to cause your ap- 
prehensions. Or you came with the guilt of 
former sin. Or you have some partiality on 
your spirit, and a secret inclination to one side 
more than to the other; or some overvaluing 
of your own understanding, person, or prayers. 
Or you are lazy and presumptuous ; and think 
God must teach you that in one hour, and at a 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 179 

wish or prayer, which others better than you 
must learn with prayer, and twenty years' study, 
diligence, and patience. Or you think God 
must needs resolve you in that which he never 
promised to resolve you in. Where hath he 
promised upon all your prayers that ever he 
will teach you in this life the sense of every text 
of Scripture ? If ever he 'promised this, he will 
perform it. And is it to one Christian, or to 
every praying Christian, that he hath promised 
it ? If to every one, why are we not aU of a mind f 
Why be not all as wise as you ? What need we 
commentaries then ? Or what need have others 
of your revelations ? If it be but to some, who 
be those some ? And how shall we know them ? 
And how know you that you are of them ? And 
why do not those some condescend to write an 
infallible commentary upon all the Bible, when 
they themselves are taught it of God, that so 
we may doubt and differ no more. 

But if you say that it is not the meaning of 
every text, that God hath promised to make 
known to you when you pray, but of some few, 
how will you^ know which those few be ? And 
where is the promise which maketh this differ- 
ence? Except only that to all Christians he 
hath promised to reveal so much as is necessary 
to their salvation. But if you will pray for 



180 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

more, your belief of your success must not go 
beyond the promise. If you will promise to 
yourselves, you must perform for yourselves. 

Objection. " But hath not God bid us believe 
that we shall receive whatever we ask, and pro- 
mised to believers that they shall receive it?" 

Answ. He hath first made a law to command 
you to pray, and then made a promise to grant 
what you pray for according to his will, that is 
according to his command and promise ; and hath 
made your believing of this promise one of the 
conditions of his fulfilling it to you. So that if 
you believe not his power and promise, you 
shall not have the thing promised. But if you 
pray and believe, and withal use those other 
means with diligence and patience, which God 
hath appointed, you shall know in that measure, 
as is suitable to your state, (for God hath not 
promised the same measure of knowledge to all 
true believers.) So that this is all that the pro- 
mise giveth you, and not that you shall know all 
that you pray to know, and that immediately. 

Objection. " But then you leave us at utter 
uncertainty whether we have the answer of our 
prayers or not." 

Answ r . Not so: but the answer of your prayers 
must not be tried by your conceits, but by God's 
rule. If you pray for that which you have 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 181 

neither a command nor promise for, your prayer 
is sin, and your answer can be nothing but God's 
rebuke, or your own delusion. But if you pray 
for that which you have a command for, but no 
particular promise, then you have only the 
general promise that your prayer shall not be lost, 
but shall bring down either the thing you pray 
for, or something else which the wisdom of God 
seeth to be best for you and others, and to his 
ends. And this is all that you can warrantably 
believe. But if you pray for that which hath 
both a command and a particular promise, (as 
the pardon of sin, and necessary grace and life 
eternal to a persevering believer) you may be 
sure that this prayer shall be granted in kind. 
So that you are not to judge of the answer of 
prayer by your conceit and passions, but by the 
promise of God, which you must believe will be 
fulfilled. Faith must tell you whether your 
prayers be accepted. Nay, if you should receive 
health, or wealth, or gifts, for yourselves or 
others, when you have prayed for them, you 
cannot tell whether it be a merciful answer to 
your prayer, or a judgment , unless you try it by 
faith according to the promise. I have nothing 
to say of the case of miracles, but this : If God 
promise a miracle, you may believe it because 
it is promised. If he perform it without a pro- 



182 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF - 

mise, then either you must not believe it till it 
is done, or else your faith must be a miracle also ; 
and then the faith itself is its own justification. 
But miracles are now so rare, that all sober 
Christians will take heed how they expect them, 
or over hastily believe them ; and especially how 
they take their own belief for a miracle. All 
the talk that some men make of a particular 
faith may be tried by what I have here said. 

To conclude. The warning which I give you 
in this case is from long and sad experience. 
I have seen too many very honest-hearted 
Christians, especially melancholy persons, and 
women, who have been in great doubt about the 
opinions of the Millenaries, the Separatists, 
the Anabaptists, the Seekers, and such like: 
and, after earnest prayer to God, they have been 
strongly resolved for the way of error, and con- 
fident by the strong impression, that it was the 
Spirit's answer to their prayers ; and thereupon 
they have set themselves into a course of sin. 
If you say, How know you that they were mis- 
taken? I will tell you how. First. Because 
they have been resolved contrary to the word 
of God. And I know that God's Spirit did first 
make a standing rule to try all after-impulses 
by ; and whatever impulse is contrary to that 
rule, is contrary to God's Spirit. The law and 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 183 

the testimony are now sealed, and all spirits to 
be tried by them. Isa. viii, 20. Secondly. Be- 
cause I have found their impulses contrary to 
one another. One hath been resolved for infant 
baptism, and another against it. One hath had 
a revelation for prelacy, and another against 
all prelacy. One hath been confident of an 
answer of prayers for Antinomianism, and 
another for Arminianism. One for a public 
communion, and another to detest it : and both 
came in the same way. Thirdly. Because I 
have seen abundance of prophecies of things to 
come, (which people have this way received 
with the greatest confidence,) to prove all false. 
Fourthly. Because I have stayed till many of 
the persons have found by experience that they 
were deceived, and have confessed it with la- 
mentation. And, fifthly, because, perhaps, I 
know more of the nature of prejudice, affection, 
melancholy, feminine weakness, and self-conceit, 
and of tempting God in the way of prayer, and 
of Satan's transforming himself into an angel 
of light, than every reader will know till they 
have paid for their learning, as I have done. 
Many that have no such impulses themselves, 
are yet so much taken with the reverence of 
others, that they are very apt to be seduced by 
their confidence. When so great a man as 



184 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OP 

Tertullian was deceived by Montanus and his 
prophetess ; when such a one as Hacket could 
deceive not only Coppinger and Arthington, but 
abundance more, some taking him for the Mes- 
siah, and some, by his breathing on them, think- 
ing that they received the Holy Ghost ; when 
David George, in Holland, and John of Leyden, 
in Munster, and Behmen Stiefelius, and so many 
more pretended prophets in Germany, could 
deceive so many persons as they did ; when the 
pretended revelations of the Ranters first, and 
the Quakers after, could so marvellously trans- 
port many thousand professors of religion in 
this land : I think we have fair warning to take 
the counsel of St. John, " Believe not every 
spirit ; but try the spirits, whether they be of 
God." It is a pitiful instance of the good, old, 
learned Commenius, who so easily believed the 
prophecies of Daubritius, and the rest which 
he hath published ; yea, when he saw the pro- 
phecies fail, yet when he adjured the prophet 
to speak truth, and got him to swear as before 
the Lord that it was truth, this seemed enough 
to confirm his belief of him : whereas, if he 
had been as well acquainted with the nature 
of melancholy and hysterical passions as many 
others are, he would have known that as strange 
things as those he recorded of the man or wo- 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 185 

man, may be done without a divine inspiration. 
And that it is no wonder if that person swear 
that his words are true, who is first deceived 
himself before he deceive others. For a crack- 
brained person to believe his delusions to be 
real verities, is little wonder. 

I have many a time myself conversed with 
persons of great honesty and piety, (though of 
no great judgment,) who have some of them 
affirmed that they had angelical revelations ; 
and some of them thought that the Spirit of 
God did bring this scripture or that scripture 
to their mind in answer to their prayers, and 
to fix their religious opinions ; and were so very 
confident that what they affirmed was the certain 
truth or voice of God, that I have been stricken 
with a reverence to their professions, and with 
a fear lest I should resist God in resisting them. 
But resolving to take none on earth for the 
master of my faith, but to try the spirits whether 
they be of God, by going to the law and testi- 
mony, I was constrained to turn my reverence into 
pity. For I found that their seeming revelations 
were some of them Scripture doctrine, and some 
of them contrary to the Scripture. As for that 
which is already in the Scripture, what need I 
further revelation for it? Is it not there suf- 
ficiently revealed ? Can their words add any 






186 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

authority to the word of God ? And have I not 
God's own ministers and means to help me to 
the knowledge of his word? And as for that 
which is contrary to Scripture, I am sure that 
it is contrary to the will of God ; and if an 
angel from heaven should preach another gospel 
to me, I must hold him accursed. Gal. i, 7, 8. 
So that if these persons should have the appear- 
ance and voice of an angel speaking to them, I 
would despise it as well as the words of a mortal 
man, if they be against the recorded word of 
God. 

But, by what I have seen and heard, I know 
that it is a great temptation to some weak 
Christians to hear one that is much in prayer 
say, Take heed what you do : have no commu- 
nion in this or that way of worship ; nor in this 
or that opinion ; for I am sure it is against the 
mind of God. I once thought as you do, but 
God hath better made known his mind unto 
me. But saving the due respect to the honesty 
of such persons, ask them, How shall I know 
that you are in the right ? If they say, I will 
not reason the case with you, but I know it to 
be the mind of God ; tell them that God hath 
made you reasonable creatures, and will accept 
no unreasonable service of you ; and you have 
but one Master of your faith, even Christ: 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 187 

therefore, if they believe that themselves, which 
they can give you no reason to believe, they 
must be content to keep their belief to them- 
selves, and not, for shame, persuade any other 
to it, without proof ! If they say that God hath 
revealed it to them, tell them, that he hath not 
revealed it to you, till they prove their divine 
revelation. If God reveal it to them but for 
themselves, they must keep it to themselves. 
If he reveal it to them for others, he will enable 
them to make some proof of their revelations, 
that others may be sure that they sin not in 
believing them. If they say that the Scripture 
is their ground, tell them that the Scripture is 
already revealed to all ; and if, indeed, what 
they speak be there, you are ready to believe 
it : but if they pervert the Scripture by false 
interpretation, or abuse of it, and misapply it, 
none of this is the work of the Spirit of God. 

If they say that the Spirit hath told them the 
meaning of the Scripture, say as before, that is 
not told for you which is not proved to you. 
The Scripture is written in such words as men 
use, of purpose that they may understand it ; 
and is to be sufficiently understood by all men 
that hear it, though they have no revelation. 
God hath also set pastors in his church to teach 
it; if, therefore, revelations be still necessary 



188 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

to the understanding of the Scripture revela- 
tions, then the Scriptures seem to be in vain ; 
and these last revelations must again have new 
revelations to the right understanding of them 
also. The truth is, it is very ordinary with 
poor fanciful women, and melancholy persons, 
to take all their deep apprehensions for revela- 
tions. And if a text of Scripture come into 
their minds, they say, This text was brought 
to my mind, and that text was set upon my 
spirit : as if nothing could bring a text to their 
thoughts, but some extraordinary motion of 
God ; and as if this bringing it to their mind 
would warrant their false exposition of it. To 
conclude. Decry not the necessity of the ordinary 
sanctifying work of the Spirit, to bless the Scrip- 
ture to your true illumination and sanctification : 
but if they pretend to any other revelations or 
inspirations, or expositions of the Scriptures, 
which they cannot prove to you, despise them 
not, but modestly leave them to themselves ; but 
take heed that the reverence of any one's holi- 
ness tempt you not to depart from the certain, 
sufficient word of God, and draw you not into 
any heresy, or separation, or opinion, contrary 
to God's standing law. 

I have known some that have lived long in 
doubts and fears of damnation, who have turned 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 189 

Anabaptists, and suddenly had comfort: and 
yet in a short time they forsook that sect and 
turned to another. I have known those also 
that have lived many years in timorous com- 
plaints and fears of hell ; and they have turned 
to the Antinomians, and suddenly been com- 
forted. The reason of all this is plain to any 
judicious observer. 1. The persons are igno- 
rant, and never had the right knowledge and 
skilful improvement of the sound doctrine, 
which at first they seemed to embrace ; and, 
2. The power of conceit and fancy brought 
them comfort or quietness in their change. 
The novelty of the matter, and the greatness of 
the change, with the conceited excellency of the 
opinions and party, did make them think that 
they were now grown very acceptable to God. 
To this may be added, that as a life of holiness 
hath far more opposition from the devil, the 
world, and the flesh, than the changing of an 
opinion, or joining with a party hath ; so it must 
be harder to get and keep that comfort which 
is got and kept by faith and holiness, than that 
which is got by such an easy change. We see 
among us what abundance of persons can live 
like beasts, in most odious whoredoms, drunken- 
ness, and rage ; or like devils, in bloody cruelty 

against the good ; and yet be comforted because 
13 



190 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

they are of the Church of Rome, which they 
think is the true church. As if God saved men 
for being of such a side or party! And why 
may not others easily take such kind of comfort ? 
O, therefore, labour for well-grounded faith and 
solid knowledge, that you may attain the true 
evangelical comforts, and that your ignorance 
may not prepare you for deceit; and that 
you may not be like children tossed to and 
fro, and carried up and down with every wind 
of doctrine, by deceived and deceitful men : 
nor have need to go to the devil to be your 
comforter ; nor to steal a little unlawful peace 
from parties and opinions, as if there were not 
enough to be had in Christ, and holiness, and 
eternal life. 

Christ owneth no disciples which are not in 
one of these two ranks ; either teachers by office 
upon a lawful call, or learners who submit to 
be taught by others. When his ministers have 
made men his disciples, they must afterward 
" teach them to observe all things whatsoever 
he hath commanded them." Matt, xxviii, 19, 20. 
And a learner must hear, and read, and dis- 
course, in a learning way, by humbly asking 
the resolution of his doubts, acknowledging the 
weakness of his own understanding, and the 
superiority of his teachers. This is the common 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 191 

ruin of raw professors, that they presently grow 
proud of a poor ignorant head, as if it were full 
of knowledge and spirituality : and while they 
continue hearers, they continue not disciples or 
learners, but come with a proud and carping 
humour, to quarrel with their teachers, as poor 
ignorant men in comparison of them ; and, 
therefore, choose them a heap of teachers ac- 
cording to their own opinions : and all this while 
they have such a desire to be somebody, and 
to vent their seeming wisdom, that they can 
hardly stay from being teachers themselves, till 
they have anything like a lawful call. Whereas, 
if they would have kept in the rank of humble 
learners till they had grown wiser, they might 
have preserved the church's peace and their 
own. 

It is an easy thing to turn the native heat 
of religion into the feverish outside zeal about 
words, or circumstances, or ceremonies, whether 
it be for or against them. I know that one 
party will cry up order, and the other will cry 
up spirituality, and both will say that God 
maketh not light of the smallest matters in re- 
ligion, nor must we : and in this general position 
there is some truth. 

It would make a knowing Christian weep to 
see in these times what censures, and worse, 



192 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

are used on both sides about the wording of our 
prayers to God ! How vile and unsufferable 
some account them that will pray in any words 
that are not written down for them ! And 
how unlawful others account it to pray in their 
written forms : some because they are forms, 
and some because that Papists have used them, 
and some because they are, or have been, 
imposed! When God hath given them no 
command, but to pray in faith and fervency, 
according to the states of themselves and others, 
and in such order as is agreeable to the matter, 
and in such method as he hath given them a 
rule and pattern of. But of all quarrels about 
forms and tvords, he hath never made any of 
their particular determinations, no more than 
whether I shall study the words, or if necessity 
require it, preach extempore. 

It is a wonder how they that believe the 
Scriptures, came first to make themselves be- 
lieve that God maketh such a matter as they 
do, of their several words and forms of prayer : 
that he loveth only extemporary prayers, as 
some think, and hateth all prescribed forms ; or 
that he loveth only prescribed forms, as others 
think, and hateth all extemporary prayers. 
Certainly in Christ's time both liturgies by 
forms, and also extemporary prayers, were 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 193 

used ; and yet Christ never interposed in the 
controversy, so as to condemn the one or the 
other. He condemneth the Pharisees for making 
long prayers to cover their devouring widows' 
houses, and for their praying to be seen of men ; 
but whether their prayers were a set form, or 
whether they were extemporary, he taketh no 
notice, as telling us that he condemned neither. 
(And it is likely the Pharisees' long form was, in 
many things, worse than ours, though the Psalms 
were a great part of it : and yet Christ and his 
apostles oft joined with them, and never con- 
demned them.) Nay, as far as I can find, the 
Pharisees and other Jews were not in this so 
blind and quarrelsome as we ; nor ever made 
a controversy of it, nor ever presumed to con- 
demn either form or extemporary prayers. 

Is it not by the law of nature the parents' 
duty to teach their children the Lord's Prayer, 
or a psalm, though it be a form ? and why not 
then other words which are agreeable to their 
state ? And He that taught his own disciples a 
form and rule of prayer, and telleth us that so 
"John taught his disciples," saith also to his 
apostles, "As my Father hath sent me, so send 
I you." The truth is, by making them teachers 
of his church, he did allow them to teach either 
by forms or without, as the case required. All 



194 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

the Scripture is now to preachers a form of 
teaching : and when we read a chapter, we read 
a prescribed form of doctrine ; and it hath many 
forms of prayer and praise, and forms of bap- 
tizing, and administering the Lord's supper. 
If you say that the apostles had an infallible 
spirit, I answer, True : and that proveth that 
their doctrine was more infallible than other 
men's ; but not that they only, and not other 
men, may teach by the way of forms : therefore 
let us learn to be more merciful and moderate 
in our judgment 

An affection of singularity in indifferent 
things doth either come from such ignorance as 
those were guilty of, (Rom. xiv,) or most com- 
monly from pride, though you perceive it not 
yourselves. 

If it be to go in a meaner garb than others, 
and, as some, not to put off the hat ; or, as others, 
to go barefoot, or in a distinguishing habit ; that 
all men may see, and say, This is a singular 
person in religion : it is easy to see how this 
gratifieth pride. Humility desireth not to be 
especially taken notice of; and in all things 
lawful to do as others do, doth gratify humility. 
It is strange to see how much stress some peo- 
ple lay upon their singular modes of worship, 
habits, gestures, and expressions, when they 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 195 

have taken them up ! They would have all to 
follow them. Here you see the mystic Pha- 
risee ! Paul became a Jew to the Jews, and all 
things lawful to all men, to save some. 1 Cor. 
ix, 19, 20. I pray you mark his words. It had 
been no strange thing, if he had become wise 
to win the foolish, and showed himself strong 
to win the weak, &c. ; but to become as a Jew 
when he circumcised Timothy, and shaved 
his head because he had a vow, and to be as 
under the law, to them that are under the law, 
without law to them that are without law, and 
to become as weak to them that are weak, to 
be made all things lawful to all men to save 
some — this is far from the religion of proud 
pretenders. 

What abundance of things do many now 
blame and censure others for as temporizers, 
which they have nothing against, (that may be 
called reason,) but only that their neighbours 
use them ? If a man stand up at the profession 
of the belief, or when psalms or hymns of praise 
to God are sung, he conformeth to the gestures 
of the congregation ; this is made his dispraise, 
which is his praise. Is not standing a fit gesture 
to profess our faith in, and to praise God ? Or 
is it praiseworthy to be odd and singular in the 
church, and not to do as the congregation doth ? 



196 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

Austin professed his resolution, in all such 
gestures and lawful orders, to do as the church 
did where he was ; and Paul would have us 
with one mouth, as well as with one mind, to 
glorify God. I entreat these men to mark whe- 
ther it was Christ or the Pharisees that came 
nearest to their way, and whom they most imi- 
tate ? Was it for going too far from sinners that 
the Pharisees censured Christ? or was it not 
for eating and drinking with them ? though he 
did it not to harden them in their sin ; but as a 
physician with the sick, to heal them. The case 
is plain ; but corrupt nature more favoureth 
the separating zeal of the Pharisees than the 
loving, winning zeal of Christ, and makes it 
much easier to be imitators of them, than of 
him. This going too far from those we should 
win, doth not only lose our advantage, but 
greatly tendeth to harden them in all their pre- 
judices against a religious life, and hinder their 
conversion, and so undo their souls. 

In a word, woe be to the reformer who feareth 
not running to the extreme contrary to the er- 
ror and sin which he would reform. Think and 
talk more of your faults and failings against 
others, than of theirs against you ; and if you 
fall into the company of backbiters, that are dis- 
honouring their rulers or their pastors, or who 






HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 197 

are telling how bad their neighbours are, labour 
to purify these stinking waters, or turn the 
stream: say to them, O friends, how bad are 
we ourselves ! what pride is in our hearts ! what 
ignorance in our minds ! so wanting are we even 
in the lowest grace, humility, that we have 
scarce enough to make us take patiently such 
censures as we are now pouring out upon others. 
Take notice of all the good which appeareth in 
others. Be more in commendation of all the 
good which indeed is in them who differ from 
you in opinion. First, you would show your- 
selves more like to God, who is love, and unlike 
to Satan the accuser. Secondly, you would show 
an honest impartial ingenuity, which honoureth 
virtue wherever it is found. Thirdly, you would 
show an humble sense of your own frailty, who 
dare not proudly contemn your brethren. 
Fourthly, you would show more love to God 
himself, when you love all that is of God, where- 
ever you discern it, and cannot bear to hear his 
gifts and mercies undervalued. 

Eemember also that you have never learned 
the Christian art of suffering aright, till you can 
suffer not only by bad men, but by men that 
otherwise are good; not only by enemies, but 
by friends; not only by them that bear the 
sword, but also by some who preach the word : 



198 CAUSES, EVILS, CUKES, OF 

and till you will not by oppression be made mad, 
nor driven from your innocency. 

Even those forms of liturgy which now are 
most distasted, were brought in by the most zea- 
lous religious people at first. The many short 
invocations, versicles, and responses, which the 
people use, were brought in when the souls of 
the faithful did abound with zeal, and break out 
in holy fervors into such expressions, and could 
not well endure to be mere auditors, and not 
vocally bear their part in the praises of God, 
and prayers of the church. And in time those 
very words which signified their raptures, were 
used by formal hypocrites, without their zeal 
who first expressed them; and so being made dead 
images, and used by rote, in a senseless canting, 
it has now become a point of zeal to avoid them 
as unlawful, though they were received from 
the predecessors in piety of those men that now 
refuse them. But though the highest expres- 
sions of zeal are most loathsome when counter- 
feited, and turned into a mere lifeless form ; yet 
it is the privation of life which is the fault of 
the thing, and not the thing in itself. Restore 
the same spirit to those words, and they will 
be as good as they were at the beginning. What 
is the inference from all this ? Why, first, I would 
advise you to look more to the things themselves, 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 199 

and less to the persons ; and regard the honour 
of humanity, if you regard not the honour of re- 
ligion. Secondly, that you truly understand 
what interest such zealous persons as yourselves 
had in those opinions, forms, and practices, at 
the first ; that if you will avoid them for some 
men's sake, you may think the better of them 
for other men's, so far as to bring you to some 
impartiality, and a pacific spirit. Thirdly, that 
you suspect that zeal in yourselves, which you 
think so much miscarried in your ancestors. 

Of all parts of religion, (I know not how it 
comes to pass) men think that negatives are suf- 
ficient for peace. If a man live not unpeaceably, 
nor provoke any to wrath, he is thought a suffi- 
cient friend to peace ; and therefore it is that 
love and peace do so little prosper. When Sa- 
tan and his instruments do all that they can by 
fraud and force against it, we think it enough to 
stand by and do no harm. It is the peacemakers 
that Christ pronounceth blessed. Matt, v, 9. 
Here he that is not with Christ and the church 
is against it. Why should we think so much 
diligence in hearing, reading, praying, &c. is ne- 
cessary to the promoting other parts of holiness, 
and nothing necessary to love and peace, but to 
do no hurt ? Is it not worthy our labour ? And 
is not our labour here as needful as anywhere ? 



200 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

Judge by the multitude and quality of the ad- 
versaries, and by their power and success. It 
is a mark of hypocrisy to go no farther in our 
duties of godliness, than the safety of our re- 
putation will give us leave. And is it not so 
in the duties of love and peace ? If the kingdom 
of God be righteousness and peace, then what 
we would do to promote God's kingdom, we 
must do for them. Rom. xiv, 17. And if divi- 
ding Christ's kingdom is the way to destroy it, 
(and Satan is wiser than to divide his own king- 
dom, Matt, xii,) then whatever we would do to 
save the kingdom of Christ, all that we must do 
to preserve and restore the peace of it, and to 
heal its wounds. 

Quest But what would you have us do for 
love and peace, and against its contraries ? 

Answ. First, preach and write if it be your 
calling. Secondly, let the cause of love and 
peace be much in your open and secret prayers 
to God. Thirdly, instruct all that learn of you 
with principles of love and peace ; and labour 
to plant them deep in their minds, and make 
them as sensible of the evil of the contraries, as 
of any other sin. Unless divines and parents 
do take this way of bringing up the people and 
children in this kind of doctrine, that love and 
peace may become their religion, the church is 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 201 

never likely to be recovered. Fourthly, in all 
your conference, labour (seasonably and pru- 
dently) to inculcate these matters on the hearers' 
minds, and to bear your testimony against cruel- 
ty and division. Fifthly, put such books into 
people's hands as plead best the cause of love and 
peace ; among others, get men to read these : — 
Bishop Usher's Sermon on Eph. iv, 3 ; Bishop 
Hall's Peacemaker ; Mr. Jeremiah Burroughs 
Heart Divisions; and Mr. Stillingfleet's Ireni- 
cum; and all Mr. Duries. Sixthly, disgrace 
not your doctrine by the badness of your lives ; 
but be as much more holy than they are, as 
you are more peaceable, that they may see it 
is not a carnal unholy peace that you desire. 
But these things belong to the following direc- 
tions : " Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, 
be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace ; 
and the God of love and peace shall be with you." 
2 Cor. xiii, 11 ; Phil, iv, 9 ; 1 Thess. v, 23. "And 
the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your 
feet shortly." Rom. xvi, 20. " Now the God 
of peace be with you all. Amen." Rom. xv, 33. 
Martyrdom for love and peace is as honour- 
able and gainful, as martyrdom for the faith. 



202 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 



DIRECTIONS TO THE PASTORS BOTH TO PRE- 
VENT AND HEAL DIVISIONS. 

The practice of which, the author doth humbly 
and earnestly beg of them, as with tears, upon 
his knees, for the sake of Christ, that purchased 
the weakest with his blood ; for the sake of those 
who hope to live in peace with Christ for ever ; 
for the sake of those who are in danger of turn- 
ing to errors, or contemning godliness, through 
the scandal of our divisions, to their damnation ; 
for the sake of the church ; for the sake of the 
rulers, that they may have the comfort of govern- 
ing a quiet and united people ; and for their own 
sakes, that they may give up their account with joy 
to the chief Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, 
and not with terror for the consuming and scat- 
tering of his flock. And the author humbly beg- 
geth of them all, that this country may but see 
and feel that the pastors do understand, believe, 
consider, and obey, that will of God w T hich these 
texts of Scripture do express : — Psa. xv, 4 ; 
Matthew xxv, 40, 45 ; xviii, 6, 10 ; 2 Cor. 
iv, 3; 1 Cor. ix, 16; Acts xx, 20, 24, 28, 33; 
1 Pet. v, 2, 3 ; Luke xxii, 24, 25 ; 1 Thess. v 
12, 13; 1 Timothy v, 17; Phil, i, 15-18 
Acts xxviii, 30, 31 ; Romans xiv, 1-4 
xv, 1-7; xiv, 17-20. 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 203 

Alas ! our preaching, praying, conference, 
and living, tell all the world that we are weak. 
How few are there that be not either ignorant, 
or injudicious, or imprudent, or dull and lifeless, 
or dry and barren, or of a stammering tongue, 
in our ministerial work ! And in so high a work, 
any one of these is a loathsome blemish. If we 
are put to defend our religion, or any necessary 
part thereof, how weakly and injudiciously is it 
usually done ! In a word, our great divisions 
among ourselves, with our censures and usage 
of one another, do tell all the world not only 
that we are weak, but that too many of us ac- 
count one another to be worse than weak, even 
intolerable. And shall we, by our weakness 
and faultiness, become the people's scandal, and 
tempt them to undue separations ; and when we 
have done, be impatient with their weakness, 
while we overlook our own ? 

When the young and ungrounded sort of 
Christians do, by their errors, pride, or passions, 
disturb the church's peace and order, it is the 
pastors that are usually first assaulted by their 
abuses, and, therefore, are most impatient and 
exasperated against them. And it were well 
if we were so innocent ourselves, as that our 
consciences need not call us to inquire whether 
this be not partly the fruit of our own miscar- 



204 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

riages. However, seeing both the eminency 
of our grace, and the nature of our office, should 
make us more sensible of the church's dangers, 
and more solicitous of its safety, than the private 
members are ; I think that the chief part of the 
duty is incumbent upon us, which must be done 
in order for the prevention of these maladies 
and for the cure. And, therefore, I think that 
the principal work of a director in this case f 
must be with the ministers of Christ themselves. 
The church's peace lieth chiefly upon our 
hands ; and if we miscarry, and will not under- 
stand instruction, nor bear admonition, nor do 
our parts, how little hope will be left of our 
tranquillity. The body must needs languish, 
when the physician is as bad as the disease. 

On every side it is the pastors of the flocks 
that are accused, by those of the adverse party, 
as the chief offenders. One side saith, " It is 
you that teach the people errors, and put scru- 
ples into their minds, and lead them into con- 
tempt of order and authority ;" and the other 
side saith, " It is you that proudly usurp autho- 
rity which Christ never gave you, and lord it 
over God's heritage, and, by your own invention, 
lay snares before the people to divide them, 
and will not suffer them to unite in their proper 
centre, and agree in the primitive simplicity." 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 205 

And while each side is thus accused by the 
other, they have all the greater cause to suspect 
themselves ; because it seemeth to be agreed 
on all hands, that it is the pastors who are prin- 
cipally in fault, though it be not agreed what 
the fault is, nor which party of the pastors must 
bear the blame. 

And, indeed, where are there any factions 
but there are ministers that head them, and that 
both caused them at first, and keep them up ? 
It is but reasonable, therefore, that we all sus- 
pect and search ourselves, and perhaps the lot 
may find out that Achan who is thought most 
innocent; and Jonah, who is not the worst 
in the ship, may be the man ; and he may 
be the Judas who is last in asking, Master, 
is it I ? 

Besides all that shall be intimated in the fol- 
lowing directions, these causes of the people's 
weakness and divisions are so openly manifest 
in too many pastors, that they cannot be con- 
cealed or excused. 

First. There is so much ignorance in many, 
that they are not able judiciously to edify the 
flocks, nor to teach sound principles in a suit- 
able manner and method to their hearers. Who 
can teach others that which they never learned 

themselves ? n A 

14 



206 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

Secondly. Too many know not the weak- 
nesses of the vulgar, and, therefore, neither 
justly resolve their doubts, nor answer their 
objections. 

Thirdly. And how cold and unskilful are 
many in the application of that doctrine which 
they have tolerably opened; and speak the 
truths of the living God without any affecting 
reverence or gravity ; and talk as drowsily 
of the evil of sin, the need of grace, the love 
of God in Jesus Christ, yea, of death and judg- 
ment, heaven and hell, as if it were their design 
to rock their hearers to sleep, or make them 
believe that it is but an historical fiction which 
they act, and that nothing they say is to be be- 
lieved ! There is no need of any more forcible 
means to entice men to sin, than to hear it 
preached against so coldly : nor is there need 
of any more to teach men to set light by Christ 
and grace, and heaven itself, than to hear them 
so heartlessly commended. We speak a few 
good words to the people in a reading tone, like 
a child that is saying his lesson, as if we believed 
not ourselves: and then we blame the people 
for being no more edified by us ; and we look 
they should be much affected with that which 
never much affected the speakers. If Christ 
himself, who preached with authority, and used 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 207 

to awaken them with an " He that hath ears to 
hear, let Mm hear," did yet convert no more 
than he did; what can we expect upon our 
drowsy and dry discourses, but drowsiness in 
the hearers, if not contempt ? 

The aforesaid unacquaintedness with the 
people and their weaknesses, doth make many 
teachers lose their labour, while they measure 
the common people by themselves. An 1, there- 
fore, experience hath ofttimes constrained me 
to say, that, after all their learning in the uni- 
versities, such pastors as never conversed fami- 
liarly with the poor and vulgar of the flock, 
and tried the exercise of personal instruction 
upon them, are no more to be regarded in any 
controversies about the pastoral work and dis- 
cipline, than an unexperienced physician, or 
pilot, in many cases of their professions ; which 
maketh many learned, self-conceited doctors, 
become the plagues, while they think themselves 
the pillars, of the church. Some make a for- 
mality and a snare of the gift of extemporary 
expression, and by a preposterous care to avoid 
all forms, teach not the people with that dili- 
gence which is necessary, but leave their minds 
void of those orderly, well-settled, secondary 
means, which should help the first ; and thus, 
while some neglect the soul of religion, others 



208 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

neglect the body of it : between them both it is 
almost all too much neglected. 

It is needful to the people's edification and 
union, that their pastors excel them much in 
knowledge and utterance, also in prudence, holi- 
ness, and heavenliness of mind and life. Because 
God useth to work by means, and vary the 
success according to the quality of the means 
and instruments, we may well conclude that the 
gifts and holiness of the pastors are very excel- 
lent and needful helps to the people's settled 
piety and peace. Where these are wanting, 
the order and means are wanting, by which God 
useth to convey his blessing. 

Our grave attire will go but a little way to 
keep up our reputation, without some better 
testimony of our worth. An empty head, a 
stammering tongue ; dry, dull, and disorderly 
preaching ; senseless, cold, or confused praying ; 
vain and frothy conversation ; will much abate 
the reverence of our persons. 

It is their double measure of the spirit of 
wisdom and goodness, which must procure a 
double measure of honour to the ministry. If 
we excel ever so much in learning, it will not 
suffice, unless we excel in our proper ministerial 
gifts— preaching, exhortation, and prayer, which 
are the works of our office. Yea, though we 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 209 

excel them in all these abilities, it will not serve 
the ends of our ministry, unless we excel them 
in holiness, and every Christian virtue. The 
devil knoweth more than ministers ; and if he 
have a tongue, he wanteth not utterance. He 
is the most excellent and honourable who is 
most like God, and hath most of his image. 
God hath more proposed himself to man's imi- 
tation in goodness, than in greatness : he hath 
not said, " Be great ; for the Lord your God is 
great ;" but, " Walk in the light, as he is in the 
light ;" " Be ye holy ; for the Lord your God 
is holy." To be great and bad, is to be able 
to do mischief: to be learned or ingenious and 
bad, is to be wise to do evil, and to be a crafty, 
subtle instrument, of the devil. Jeremiah iv, 22. 
It was no laudable description of Elymas. 
Acts xiii, 8, 10. Satan never would trans- 
form himself into an angel of light, nor his 
ministers into the ministers of righteous- 
ness; nor would Pharisees and hypocrites 
cover oppression by long prayers; if light, 
righteousness, and long prayers, were not 
laudable in themselves, and necessary in the 
preachers of the word of God, and had not 
the appearance of good in them, as a cloak for 
wickedness. 

If therefore Satan, or any of his ministers, 



210 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

would have men credit their falsehood and wick- 
edness, they must pretend to light and holiness. 
He that would keep up the true honour of his 
ministry, and be accepted with God, and esteem- 
ed by good men, must do it by real light and 
holiness. An ungodly minister hath a rooted 
enmity to the holy doctrine which he preacheth, 
and holy duties and life which he exhorteth the 
people to. How well, sincerely, readily, faith- 
fully, they are like to do the work which they 
are enemies to, you may easily judge. Rom. 
viii, 7. I know that they are not enemies to the 
honour and maintenance, and therefore may 
force themselves to do much of the outside work; 
but where there is an inward enmity to the life 
and ends of it, we can expect but a formal, in- 
constant, discharge of such unpleasing duty. 
Truth is for goodness : the knowledge which 
maketh you not good is lost, and hath missed its 
end. If therefore your love to God and man, 
your mortification and unblameableness of life, 
your spiritual mindedness, be no greater than 
the people's, (or perhaps much less,) do not won- 
der if you lose your honour with them, and grow 
very contemptible in their eyes. Mai. i, 10, 14 ; 
ii; 1 Sam. ii, 17, 24, 30. If, as Moses, you 
stand nearer to God than the people do, you 
must be more holy than they; and your face 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 211 

must shine with the beams of God in the people's 
eyes. 

If ever the church is healed of its wounds, it 
must be by the peaceable disposition of the pas- 
tors and people. If ever men come to a peace- 
able disposition, it must be by peaceable doctrine 
and principles ; by a full and frequent explica- 
tion of the nature, pre-eminence, and power of 
love ; that they may hear of it so much, and so 
long, till love be made their religion, and become 
as the natural heat and constitution of their souls. 
To promote this, the aged, experienced, and ripe 
kind of ministers, and private kind of Christians, 
must instil it into young Christians and scholars, 
that they may have nothing so common in their 
ears and studies as uniting love. 

If I knew that man by whom the salvation of 
my flock were like to be more promoted than 
by me, (whatever infirmity of my people might 
be the cause,) I should think myself a servant 
of Satan, and an enemy of souls, if I were against 
it. So Christ be preached, and the people in- 
structed, sanctified, and saved ; what if it be done 
by another rather than by me ? have I not liber- 
ty to do my best ? Shall I oppose the gospel and 
its success ? God forbid that I, or any faithful 
minister, should be guilty of so odious a sin! 
I speak without respect of persons. It is easy 



212 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

and common, both in churches and private as- 
semblies, to preach ourselves while we seem to 
be preaching Christ; and by our perverse 
preaching to seek disciples for ourselves, even 
when we are preaching up self-denial, and seem 
most zealous for the saving of souls. Acts xx, 30. 

He is the strongest Christian, and the most 
godly man, who hath the greatest love to God, 
and heavenliness of mind and life. And this 
may be the case of many a one, who, by some 
error about the circumstances of discipline and 
worship, is yet under some mistake. He that 
offendeth me by his mistake, though he be weak 
in judgment in some points, may yet be a far 
stronger Christian than I who see his error. 
He may have more love to God and man ; more 
humility and self-denial, &c. Let us therefore 
esteem men according to the image of God upon 
them, and not despise them as weak in grace, 
because they are weak in this point of know- 
ledge: though still their errors are not to be 
owned. 

Beware of following the heated leaders of a 
party, and of assuming the lead yourselves ; for 
those who follow you, when God showeth them 
mercy, they will repent, and give you but little 
thanks for your labour. The disorders of the 
church may convince us of our error in follow- 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 213 

ing those whom we should have led into better 
discipline. 

There are not many of the tumults that have 
cost the lives of thousands about religion, but are 
kindled by the young injudicious professors. His- 
torians tell that when King Francis, of France, 
had forbidden the reproaching of the Popish 
way of worship, and silenced the ministers for not 
obeying him; many of the hot-brained people 
took this way of provoking him, by hanging up 
pictures and libels in the streets, (but that was 
not the way of God,) and began that persecution 
(by provoking the king) which cost many thou- 
sands, if not hundred thousands, their lives before 
it ended. And the synod at Rochel, which refused 
the grave counsel of Duplesses, Dumullen, and 
many others, were stirred up by the people's zeal, 
and ended in the blood of many score thousands, 
and the ruin of the power of the Protestants in 
France. Abundance of such sad instances might 
be given, if England needed to go anywhere else 
for matter of warning than to itself. He that 
after the experience of this age, will think it fit 
to follow the conduct of injudicious zealots, will 
be left as inexcusable as any man who never had 
a sight of hell. 

But if you will do all things good and lawful 
to win men, and offend them by no unnecessary 



214 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OF 

thing, and yet stand your ground, and stir not 
an inch from truth and soberness, piety or peace, 
to please any people in the world, this way shall 
do your work. 

Let it also be observed, When pastors fall 
into parties, they always draw the people after 
them. Some take one side and some the other. 
If the officers divide, the soldiers will. If one 
side suppresses the other, it will nevertheless 
increase the schism, while the people will pity 
and plead for the party that is troden down. 
As to the younger and emptier sort of ministers, 
it is no wonder if they understand not that which 
they never had opportunity to study, or have 
taken but a taste of; but it were to be wished 
that they were so humble, as to confess that 
they are yet but beardless, and that time and 
long study is necessary to make them as wise as 
they think they are. O that the ministers of 
Christ were once sensible, not here only, but 
through all the Christian world, what a plague 
the conjunction of their ignorance, contentious- 
ness, and their dividing, selfish zeal, hath been 
to the church of Christ ! And what they have 
done against the souls of men, by violence and 
by heading parties, and by laying heaven and 
hell, and the salvation of their souls, upon the 
opinions which they never understood; by de- 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 215 

parting from the primitive simplicity, to maintain 
their side and sanctity by backbiting and re- 
proaching others, whose persons perhaps they 
never saw, nor ever once soberly discoursed with 
face to face. Yet they make it their piety to 
revile by hearsay, and judge in a cause they 
never heard, nor understood. If ever God show 
mercy to his church, he will give them pastors 
after his own heart, who shall abound in light 
and love ; and lead the people into concord upon 
the ancient terms ; and make it their work to 
put this love-killing spirit to death, whether it 
work by striving disputes, or dividing principles 
and practices, or by reproaching others ; by cor- 
poreal cruelty, or by a religious, censorious cruel- 
ty, which doth not kill nor strike men ; but un- 
church and damn them. 

Are not the sons of Levi yet refined, when 
they have been in so many furnaces, and so long ? 
When wisdom, holiness, and humility, are their 
nature, and selfish pride and worldliness are 
cured, this wrinkled, malignant enmity, will then 
cease, and an honest emulation to excel one an- 
other in wisdom, love, and all good works, will 
then take place; and then we shall not, like 
drunken men, one day fight and wound each other, 
and the next cry out of our wounds, and yet go 
on in our drunken fits to make them still wider. 



216 CAUSES, EVILS, CURES, OP 

I shall end these directions by recommending 
the following scriptures, which by the blessing 
of God may lead you to the spirit and practices 
I have been treating of: — Isa. ix, 6, 7 ; xl. 11 ; 
xlii, 1-4 ; xliv, 3-5 ; Ezek. xxxiv, 2-5 ; Isa. 
xi, lxv, xxv ; ii, 3-5; Mai. ii, 5-10; Zee. 
ix, 9 ; Matt, xi, 29 ; Luke iv, 18 ; Mark iii, 21 ; 
John iv, 32, 34 ; ix, 4 ; Luke xxii, 24 ; Matt. 
xx, 25-27; John xviii, 36 ; Luke xii, 14 ; 1 Pet. 
v, 2-4; 2 Cor. i, 24; Matt, xxiii, 8 ; 1 Cor. iv, 
1-3 ; 2 Cor. x, 8 ; xiii, 10 ; Acts xiii, 18-20, 
29-34 ; 2 Cor. xii, 5 ; 2 Tim. ii, 23-25 ; 1 Tim. 
iii, 2, 3 ; Tit. i, 7-10 ; 2 Cor. x, 3-5 ; Eom. xiv, 
1; xv, 2, 3; Phil, iii, 15, 16; Eph. iv, 2, 3; 
Phil, ii, 3; James iii, 17; 1 Thess. ii, 5-7; 
Gal. v, 22 ; 2 Cor. x, 1 ; Gal. vi, 1 ; Col. iii, 12, 
13; 1 Tim. vi, 11; Tit. iii, 2; 1 Pet. iii, 4; 
Lev. xix, 18 ; Rom. xii, 9, 10 ; xiii, 10 ; John 
xiii, 34, 35; xv, 12, 17; Gal. v, 14: 1 Thess. 
iv, 9 ; 1 Pet. i, 22 ; ii, 23 ; Matt, v, 44, 45 ; vi, 
14; v, 39-41; 1 Thess. v, 12-14; 1 Cor.ix,19. 

Question. To what purpose do you set to- 
gether all these words of Scripture, without any 
exposition, or telling us what you conclude from 
them? 

Answer. I avoid all glosses, that you may 
not say, I have imposed anything of my own 
upon you, which is not the mind of your Lord 



HEART AND CHURCH DIVISIONS. 217 

himself. I set them together, that such as 
overlook them may have a deeper sense 
than they have had, first, of what is the true 
spirit of a Christian ; secondly, of what is the 
office of the ministry, and which way they are 
to win souls, silence gainsayers, extirpate errors, 
prevent or cure schisms, and secure the church's 
peace. 

As for those who can seriously read all these 
words of the Spirit of God, and yet can find in 
them no matter of correction, without a com- 
mentary and argumentations, I have no more 
to say to them at this time, but to add Christ's 
next words, John xiii, 18 : "I speak not of you 
all : I know whom I have chosen." I shall 
annex a few texts that characterize a spirit 
contrary to Christianity, and the faithful mini- 
stry, and with them I shall conclude : — 1 John 
iii, 12, 13 ; Heb. xi, 4 ; John viii, 44 ; 1 Sam. 
xxv, 25 ; xxii ; Ezra iv, 13, 15-17 ; Esther 
iii, 8; Dan. iii, 12; vi, 5; Amos vii, 12, 13; 
Matthew xxiii, 29-31 ; John xi, 48 ; Acts iv, 
1, 2, 17, 18 ; Gal. iv, 29 ; 3 John 9-11 ; 1 Thess. 
ii, 14, 15 ; Luke ix, 54, 55. 



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